Up From the Counter

The top operating company of the country's biggest retail food sellers announced that it had a new president. The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. of New Jersey, whose executives have a passion for anonymity, needed only a three-sentence press release last week to say that Ralph W. Burger had been named to succeed David T. Bofinger, who died last December. To businessmen, 61-year-old Burger was almost completely unknown, and A. & P. did not enlighten them. He had never been listed in Who's Who in America nor in any of the other directories with which U.S. industry keeps track of its top men.

Like most A. & P. executives, he had come up through the ranks. The son of a longtime A. & P. employee, Burger was born at Kingston, N.Y., and joined A. & P. at the age of 22 as a part-time clerk. He became secretary in 1925, lives in suburban New Rochelle, N.Y. Like other top A. & P. executives, he was picked by the Hartford brothers, John, 77, and George, 86, who still run the giant chain, also conform to the stern tradition of anonymity. John has six lines in Who's Who in America, George has three.

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