Chemical & Engineering
NEWS FEBRUARY 6, 1967
The Chemical World This Week Connor moves to Allied John T. Connor starts back to work next week, four weeks after resigning from the Johnson Administration (C&EN, Jan. 23, page 29"). Apparently untouched by Potomac fever after two years as Secretary of Commerce, he goes on the payroll of Allied Chemical as president. Thus the 52-year-old former chief of Merck & Co. returns not only to private industry but the chemical industry as well. At Allied headquarters at 61 Wall St., Mr. Connor will succeed Chester M. Brown, who has been both president and board chairman since Allied reorganized its corporate structure last March. Mr. Brown will remain as board chairman and retain the duties of chief executive officer. Says Mr. Brown of his new helper: "Allied is unusually fortunate to have Mr. Connor, who possesses a rare combination of successful legal, government, and research-oriented chemical experience, in this vital position." Allied's new president will take his post Feb. 15, joining a company that some observers cast in the role of a re-awakening giant. In their view Allied's purchase of the Times Tower in New York City in April 1963 marks the company's awakening to the 1960's. Although one of the largest chemical companies (1966 sales of more than $1.2 billion) Allied has, for years, had an image in the industry as an aged, tired giant. But this is becoming less and less true. The company has made a major effort to enter wholeheartedly into synthetic fibers, for example. Since mid-1965, Allied has teamed up with a government-owned firm in Iran to build a $100 million petrochemical complex; started drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea; and completely reorganized its corporate structure. Mr. Connor may very likely be able to further polish the new Allied image. Mr. Connor brings to Allied the "whiz-kid" background that has taken him to posts in both Covernment and industry in recent years. He graduated from Syracuse University in 1936, received a law degree from Harvard in 1939, and joined a law firm in New York City. Unlike most prominent businessmen, he went to
President Connor Returns to chemical industry
Chairman Brown Remains chief executive officer
Washington early in his career, going to work in 1942 as a lawyer for the Lend Lease Administration. Not long after, Dr. Vanhevar Bush, who headed the Office of Scientific Research and Development, asked Lend Lease to supply him with a general counsel. Mr. Connor was tapped. After a stint in the Marine Corps, he was persuaded by Dr. Bush, by then chairman of Merck, to join the company. From general attorney at Merck he rose to secretary and counsel in 1947; to vice president in 1950; to administrative vice president in 1953; and to vice president and general manager of the Merck Sharp & Dohme International Division in 1955. Later in 1955 he was elected president of the company. Merck prospered during his tenure as president, sales climbing from $155 million in 1955 to more than $286 million in 1964, when he left to become Secretary of Commerce. Earnings grew even faster, from $17 million in 1955 to $45 million in 1964. He was also active in the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association and the Manufacturing Chemists Association. When Mr. Connor returned to Washington as Secretary of Commerce in December 1964, he had as one of his goals setting up a rapport be-
tween Government and business. The rapport never did materialize, though there was no lack of effort on Mr. Connor's part. Two years later he resigned, on the heels of an Administration proposal to merge the Departments of Commerce and Labor (C&EN, Jan. 16, page 18).
Sulfur, lithium firms post banns Gulf Sulphur continues its program of diversification with a proposed merger with Lithium Corp. of America. The directors of the two companies have agreed on the merger and plan to submit the proposed transaction to the stockholders of both companies for approval in about 90 days. According to the agreement, Gulf Sulphur will be the surviving corporation. Its common stock will be the stock of the surviving company. If stockholders approve the merger, the name of the surviving company will be changed, however, to identify more accurately the varied activities of the new corporation, according to Robert H. Allen, president of Gulf Sulphur. The proposed merger would involve an exchange of two shares of Lithium common stock for one share of a conFEB. 6, 1967 C&EN 23
