An Expected Departure

In the clouds over the Atlantic aboard Pan American Flight 55 last month, Ford Vice Chairman Arjay Miller leaned over to his companion and said he intended to quit. He said he had been invited to head Stanford University's Graduate School for Business effective next July. Miller recalls: "Mr. Ford understood why I wanted to go." So did other automen in Detroit. Miller's leavetaking had been expected since February, when Henry Ford II raided General Motors and came away with Semon E. Knudsen to replace him as president at Ford. Miller at 51 was shunted sideways into the newly created spot of vice chairman--after 22 years with the company, which he joined with Robert McNamara as one of the famed "whiz kids." A scholarly executive who once taught economics at the University of California and rose through finance to the top, Miller could never boast, like many of his fellow automen, that he had gasoline in his veins. "I have been an automobile man interested in education," he says. "Now I'll be an educator interested in the automobile industry."

His five years as president have been clouded by Ford's losing battle to hold on to its share of the domestic auto market. Annual sales have slipped from 31% of U.S.-made cars in 1961 to about 28% (down to 25.3% for last month). But Miller is not leaving in anger. He admits that he is taking a sizable cut from the $175,000 he earned last year. He intends to stay on Ford's board of directors and keep his 55,783 Ford shares, valued at $2,900,000.

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