Changes of the Week

In his 42 years of railroading, Baltimore & Ohio's Executive Vice President Howard E. Simpson has built a reputation as a man who says what he thinks and knows what he is talking about. "Almost the first time I met him," says B. & O.'s President Roy White, who has been his boss for 17 years, "we had an argument over an idea of mine. He thought I was wrong, and ultimately I came around to his point of view." Last week the man who could give no for an answer was elected president of the B. & O., the oldest railroad in the U.S.; up to chairman moved 70-year-old Roy White.

Beefy, jovial Howard Simpson, 57, is one of the nation's few top railroaders to rise through the passenger department. He started as a clerk with the Central Railroad of New Jersey and hit almost every rung of the ladder on the way up to assistant general passenger agent. He joined B. & O. in 1931 and started grooming for the presidency a year ago. Said Simpson: "I plan no changes just for the sake of change."

Other shifts of the week:

P: Wilson & Co.'s Chairman Thomas E. (for Edward) Wilson, one of Chicago's most durable executives, finally decided to retire at 85, after 66 years in the meatpacking business. Into the chairmanship went Wilson's redhaired, Princeton-educated son, Edward Foss Wilson, 48, president since 1934. Wilson's new president and chief executive officer: trim (6 ft., 175 Ibs.) James D. Cooney, 60, a country lawyer turned corporation counsel, who joined Wilson in 1926. Educated at the University of Iowa, Cooney learned to fly in World War I, later hung out his shingle at West Union, Iowa, and rose to district judge handling "mine-run cases, from murders to accidents involving model T Fords." A Wilson vice president since 1931, Cooney says: "I have carried a good deal of responsibility. The presidency means more of same."

P: Into the Interstate Commerce Commission's new $14,800 post of managing director stepped Edward Frederick "Pete") Hamm Jr., 45, a Chicago-born Dartmouth man and publisher of such transportation trade papers as Traffic World Daily and Traffic Bulletin. The new ICC post, created at the suggestion of a management engineering firm, is a strictly administrative job. Explained Chairman J. Monroe Johnson: "The commissioners are engaged in determining the output of the ICC machine. Hamm's job is to keep the machine running."

P: Of all the executives who have tried to keep afloat under Sewell Avery's iron-fisted rule at Montgomery Ward, one at least had the name for the job: John Edward Struggles, 39, who rose to personnel vice president two years ago. But last week Struggles also gave up the struggle, became the 32nd vice president to leave Monkey Ward since Avery took over in 1931. Struggle's new job: special assistant in the Commerce Department.

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