TIME INC.'s major venture in the field of education, in partnership with General Electric Co., last week took two important steps forward. It acquired a name and a team of top officials. General Learning Corporation's first president is Richard L. Shetler, until now a vice president of G.E. Also elected by the boards of the two parent companies was Roy E. Larsen, chairman of Time Inc.'s Executive Committee, who becomes interim chairman of the new company.

General Learning will create and market in the U.S. and abroad educational materials, systems and services geared to the technologies of the day. Owned in equal shares by G.E. and Time Inc., the new company will operate as a separate and independent entity. When the project was launched late last year (TIME, Nov. 26), the parent companies said that their intent was to combine educational materials with electronics in order to help educators solve their "critical problems."

President Shetler is a pioneer in G.E.'s aerospace and defense work, was general manager of the company's Defense Programs Division in Washington and headed G.E.'s "think" factory known as Tempo. Roy Larsen, TIME'S first circulation manager and president of Time Inc. from 1939 to 1960, has long had a working interest in education. He helped organize and became chairman of the National Citizens Commission for the Public Schools, and was a member of the President's Committee for the White House Conference on Education.

Elected to the board of the new company from Time Inc. were Rhett Austell, publisher of TIME-LIFE Books, Edgar R. Baker, vice president in charge of research and development, John F. Harvey, vice president and comptroller. New board members from G.E.: Vice Presidents Hershner Cross, Dr. George L. Haller, Dr. Louis T. Rader and General Manager (consumer electronics) Robert C. Wilson. Norman P. Ross, who has been editor of TIME-LIFE Books, was elected a vice president and director of educational research and development. The new board elected Craig T. Senft as a vice president. He will also continue as president of the Silver Burdett Co., a textbook publishing subsidiary of Time Inc., which now becomes a division of the new enterprise.

One of the most distinguished figures in U.S. education has been asked to head up General Learning. Time Inc. President James A. Linen announced last week that Francis Keppel (TIME cover, Oct. 15), former dean of the Harvard School of Education, and Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare since September 1965, has been invited to become chairman and chief educational officer of G.L. When Keppel resigned his Government post recently, President Johnson, in a cordial exchange of letters, saluted the educator as a man who has already made a memorable contribution to the effort to "bring the joy of learning to all young people."

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