Changes of the Week

P: Donald W. Nyrop, 42, was elected president of Northwest Airlines. A one-time chief of the Civil Aeronautics Authority (1950-51) and later chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board (1951-52), Nyrop was in for a rough flight. Northwest's most pressing problem is its need for new planes. It will have to borrow $10 million to pay for four new Super Constellations to be delivered early next year, probably will have to spend additional millions to expand its air fleet. Other worries stemmed from 1) the Government's cut in Northwest's domestic-mail pay from 53-c- a ton-mile to 45-c- this year, and 2) Pan American's application to fly the great-circle route from the U.S. north to the Orient, hitherto exclusively flown by Northwest. Nyrop, who is confident he can solve the troubles, began his career by studying law at George Washington University while a Senate elevator boy, joined the legal staff of newly created CAB in 1939. At CAA he whittled the budget by $15 million; at CAB he cut mail payments by $13 million annually and got the carriers to kick back $11 million already paid out.

P: A. M. Sonnabend, 57, was elected board chairman of Botany Mills of Passaic, N.J., which has lost $7,000,000 in the past two years. The president of the Childs Co. restaurant chain, and also of a string of hotels (e.g., Chicago's Edgewater Beach, Manhattan's Plaza and Ritz Tower), Sonnabend first got interested in textiles this year, when he supported Textron's attempt to take over American Woolen. Recent purchases of Botany stock gave him working control of the company along with Philadelphia's H. Daroff & Sons, maker of men's suits. To get Botany on its feet, he has plans to merge a middle-sized, prosperous firm (e.g., Daroff) with Botany, to take advantage of the large tax-loss carry forward. He is also thinking of putting Botany's modern machinery in a new, streamlined plant in the South.

P: Leon Lowenstein, 71, was elected board chairman of Wamsutta Mills of New Bedford, Mass. He remains chairman of M. Lowenstein & Sons, Inc., the big cotton clothmaker, which recently bought control of Wamsutta (TIME, Aug. 30). Joseph Axelrod will stay as president, but Lowenstein and six of his top executives will sit on the ten-man board.

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