Whither Ward?

Sewell Avery's roundhouse punch (TIME, June 21) was still knocking them out at Montgomery Ward. Last week George Whitney and Harry Davison of J. P. Morgan & Co. left Ward's board because of "certain differences of opinion." Director Lawrence Appley, who is president of the American Management Association, promptly followed suit. Counting the resignations of President Wilbur Norton (by Avery's order) and four vice presidents (by choice), this brought Ward's total loss to eight top men. Still there was no sign that 74-year-old Chairman Avery had changed his single-track mind about running "Monkey Ward" to suit himself and no one else.

How could he get away with it? One reason was Avery's unquestionable genius for success. In 17 years he had built Ward's from a debt-ridden store to the second largest mail-order house in the U.S. Last year it had a record $59 million profit. No individual owns more than 1% of the stock and no company or estate more than 2%. The 6.6 million shares are scattered among 68,500 holders, the biggest of them investment trusts.

Massachusetts Investors Trust, largest Ward stockholder (104,000 shares), finally decided last week that it was time to move. It sent two of its trustees to Chicago to investigate. "We are very much disturbed," said Chairman Merrill Griswold, "that some of [Ward's] directors, out of what seems to be a mistaken sense of loyalty to their oldtime associate, Mr. Avery, are overlooking their duties to the general stockholder."

The situation seemed to have the makings of a proxy fight. But even if one developed, there was no assurance that imperious Sewell Avery would be toppled. Aside from his record at turning profits, there was his rock-hard stubbornness. "I'll be here," Avery once told an associate, "until I'm six feet under."

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