Three for the New Team

Geography and race become part of the equation

For his last four unfilled Cabinet positions, Reagan confronted several requirements. He had to mollify two regions, the South and Midwest, which were not represented among his previous nominees to head departments. He had to appoint at least one nonwhite. And, perhaps most difficult of all, he had to find people who were willing to begin carrying out his plan to dismantle the Departments of Education and Energy--in effect, eventually to put themselves out of jobs. Reagan managed to fill three of the positions but not Education. At least three people were considered for the job, but apparently were not interested, possibly because they did not want to preside over a doomed department. At week's end that post remained unfilled. Profiles of the three nominees:

A Lawyer For HUD

When he was approached about becoming Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Samuel Riley Pierce Jr., 58, did not exactly jump at the chance. Joining the Administration would mean giving up his partnership at the prominent New York labor law firm of Battle, Fowler, Jaffin, Pierce & Kheel with a salary reported to be more than $100,000, vs. $69,630 at HUD. Says Pierce: "Frankly, I had to think about that." He discussed it with his wife Barbara Perm Wright, a physician with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., and after a meeting with Reagan in California, finally decided to accept.

The Reaganauts breathed a little easier. Pierce, who is best known for his work in labor law, is the Cabinet's only black so far. An Eastern Establishment Republican, the son of a prosperous dry cleaner and real estate man in the New York suburb of Glen Cove, Pierce was a star halfback and Phi Beta Kappa graduate at Cornell, where he also earned his law degree in 1949. He then began building a long string of firsts, such as the highest-ranking black (as an assistant to an Under Secretary of Labor) in the Eisenhower Administration and the first black partner in a major New York law firm. Nelson Rockefeller appointed him to two interim judgeships, in 1959 and 1960, but Pierce lost twice in elections to full 14-year terms because of heavy Democratic opposition.

Pierce's background worries some critics, who wonder if he has enough feeling for the problems of U.S. minorities. Says the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, head of the Black United Front, which is based in Brooklyn: "As far as I know, there's no track record of any involvement in any struggle I've been with."

But Vernon Jordan, president of the National Urban League, says that Pierce has "always cared about civil rights, and he's always been involved. It's reassuring that blacks are going to be involved in this Administration at the highest level." Adds William H. Oliver, president of the N.A.A.C.P.'S National Housing Corporation: "Just because a person didn't march in the South doesn't mean that he doesn't have personal dedication to civil rights."

Pierce, who has been involved in low-cost housing projects as a trustee of the N.A.A.C.P.'S National Housing Corporation's Special Contributions Fund, favors tax incentives for businesses that move into blighted areas and create new jobs. Says he: "Anything that's reasonable to get business in and keep it there, I'm for." With his background as an advocate, Sam Pierce is likely to be more than window dressing for the Reagan Cabinet.

A Farmer For Agriculture

Farmers usually prefer one of their own in charge of the Department of Agriculture, and they have one in John Rusling Block, 45. But he is far from typical. He cultivates about 3,000 acres of prime land in west-central Illinois, near Galesburg, that is worth about $10 million. His operation includes 6,000 hogs in a farrow-to-finish operation. He also had the backing of Kansas Senator Robert Dole, who sent a map of the U.S. to Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt, one of Reagan's closest advisers, that was marked with states from which Cabinet members had already been picked. Wrote Dole in an accompanying note: "Paul, this blank space is called the Midwest."

A West Pointer (class of '57), Block served for three years in the crack 101st Airborne Division; in 1960 he returned home to build the family farm, then only 300 acres, into the thriving enterprise it is today. He married a circuit judge's daughter, Suzanne Rathje; they have three children, including Hans, 21 who will run things while his father i: in Washington.

In 1977 Block became director o the Illinois department of agriculture, a post in which he earned high marks even from rival Democrats. One of his proudest accomplishments was improving the efficiency of the Illinois State Fair which indicates the vast jump that he must make from the 806-employee state agency he headed to the U.S.D.A., with its 141,000 employees and far-flung operations involving issues such as international grain sales and the role of farm products in diplomacy. On these last matters, Block will take office with firm beliefs. He argues that food is America's greatest diplomatic weapon and will continue to be so "as other countries become more dependent on American farm exports and become reluctant to upset us." But he opposes the Carter Administration's embargo on grain sales to the Soviets, maintaining that it hurt only the U.S. farmer. Block also believes that federal regulators should get off the farm. Says he: "It's better to have regulation done by people close to the activity." Block would reduce federal meat and grain inspections in states that already provide adequate regulation.

Block's acquaintances regard him as a nice guy, a "perfect neighbor," as one of them said. But they fear that his mild manner and lack of Washington experience may make him a weak advocate for the farmer in the capital. Says one Kansas farm official: "They play hardball in Washington; Block has not been in that league before."

A Surgeon For Energy

He is a successful dentist in Charleston, S.C.; a Reagan loyalist since 1964; and, from 1975 to 1979, he served as the first Republican Governor of South Carolina in a century. He has little experience in the energy field. But James Burrows Edwards, 53, has one major credential for the job of Secretary of Energy. He is a protege of South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, who with other Southern Republicans had been complaining that Reagan had not appointed anyone from their region to his Cabinet. Edwards would like nothing better than to be unemployed by 1982, when he hopes to run for Governor again.

Edwards, an oral surgeon by profession, is a backslapping, yarn-spinning politician of the old Southern school. He is married and has two grown children. He concedes that he is "not an expert on energy matters." But he maintains that the interest he took in energy while serving as Governor, when he created the South Carolina Energy Research Institute, qualifies him for the post in the Reagan Cabinet." He advocates stepped-up development of nuclear power as "the cheapest, the safest and the cleanest" source of energy available. He wants to abolish regulations that are "standing in the way" of producing more energy from all sources. Says he: "We need to unleash it, to free the private sector." To that end, he says, "it would be my pleasure to try and cut down DOE'S size, to dismantle it, to redistribute it."

Since Reagan intends the Federal Government to play a major role in national energy policy, that may not happen as quickly as had been anticipated. Says a Reagan transition official: "Before we can do away with the department, we have to figure out what we're going to put in its place." Thus Edwards may not be out of a job quite as fast as he might like.

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