Changes of the Week

Republic Steel's Tom Mercer Girdler, 78, militant foe of labor in labor's militant '303, successful boss of Consolidated Vultee Aircraft during the war years, quit his post as Republic's chief executive officer and retired to his Lexington, Ky. horse farm. He remained as board chairman, but the title of chief operating officer and the actual job of running Republic passed to his longtime understudy, Charles M. White, 64.

Harold L Pearson, 52, became president of Air Transport Association, the organization of U.S. scheduled airlines. Kansas-born "Pete" Pearson spent 22 years in chain-store merchandising at J. C. Penney and Sears, Roebuck, then joined Montgomery Ward, where he was named Ward controller in 1934. Pearson went on to become vice president, treasurer, and Avery's close confidant. In 1945, like dozens of other Ward executives, Pearson "escaped," as he put it. Later, Pearson went to Washington, became Deputy Under Secretary of the Army in 1952, Assistant Director of the Budget Bureau in 1954.

Joseph C. Kracht, 50, was named vice president and retail manager of Montgomery Ward (starting Aug. 1), the company's first retail veep in three years. A native New Yorker and Columbia University graduate, Kracht spent 13 years with Ward, then quit in 1950 to become a vice president at W. R. Grace & Co. and then to the same spot with Fedway Stores, a subsidiary of Federated Department Stores.

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