Changes of the Week

P: Frank Oscar Prior, 62, president since 1955 of Standard Oil Co. (Ind.), was named chairman of the board and chief executive officer to succeed Robert E. Wilson, who retired after 13 years as chairman. A Stanford graduate and onetime oilfield roughneck, Prior will be succeeded by John Eldred Swearingen Jr., 39, executive vice president since 1956. Swearingen, a South Carolinian, went to Standard in 1939 from Carnegie Tech, won a reputation as a top production man, became general manager of Standard's production in 1951, vice president in charge of production in 1954. Prior and Swearingen have worked together to realign and consolidate Standard subsidiaries, have pushed Standard back into foreign exploration for oil (South America, Canada, Mideast). Swearingen's promotion . puts him in line of succession to take over the top job within a few years.

P:Philip Dunham Reed, 58, board chairman of General Electric Co. for 19 years, will step down at G.E.'s annual meeting April 23, retire when he reaches 60 next year. A handsome man and a fluent speaker, Reed is an engineer (Wisconsin '21) and a lawyer (Fordham '24), became G.E.'s youngest chairman of the board, served in Washington and London in World War II, has since concentrated on G.E.'s international affairs.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.