Exit Ganger

Just a year after he was elected president of P. Lorillard Co. (Old Golds, Kents), Robert M. Ganger, 49, was out as suddenly as he went in. Ganger, who had spent 22 years in advertising before Lorillard hired him away from his agency (Geyer, Newell & Ganger) as executive vice president in 1950, had resigned, announced Lorillard, "in the interest of regaining his health." Replacing Ganger was Executive Vice President William J. (for Joseph) Halley, 55, a financial expert who joined Lorillard in 1918, moved up steadily, if not spectacularly, as comptroller, treasurer and financial vice president. In the shuffle last week, Chairman and Former President (1942-52) Herbert A. Kent, 66, took back his old job as chief executive officer.

Other personnel changes:

P: Into the No. 1 spot, replacing ailing President Charles G. Taylor Jr., 69, of the $11.6 billion Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. stepped Executive Vice President Frederic W. (for Worral) Ecker, 57, son of former (1929-36) Met President Frederick H. Ecker, 85, now honorary chairman. A Harvardman ('18), poker-faced (and poker-playing) Frederic Ecker won a D.S.C. and Croix de guerre as a World War I infantry lieutenant, tried his hand briefly in the securities business before following in his father's footsteps at Metropolitan.

P: Into the presidency of Hercules Powder Co. went Albert E. Forster, 52, succeeding Charles A. Higgins, 65, who remains board chairman. A Stanford University engineering graduate, Forster joined Hercules in 1925, left it for four Depression years to try his hand at a Brazilian engineering job. Back at Hercules again, he helped run an explosives plant, switched to sales and service, became a director in 1940, a vice president two years ago.

P:To succeed aging (72) J. (for James) Frank Drake as chairman and chief executive officer of Gulf Oil Corp., President Sidney A. Swensrud, 52, moved up to chairman, while Drake became executive committee chairman. Gulf's new president is William K. Whiteford, 52, who in the early '205 started as a roughneck in the Southern California oilfields, rose rapidly in production jobs with independents, was chairman and president of Canada's British-American Oil Co., Ltd. in 1951 when he quit to join Gulf as executive vice president.

P:Former U.S. Budget Director and Army Secretary Frank Pace Jr., 40, was elected executive vice president and director of General Dynamics Corp. (TIME, April 6), and vice chairman of the corporation's planemaking subsidiary, Canadair, Ltd.

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