Cohu for Coburn

Quiet Graham Bethune Grosvenor was president of wide-flung Aviation Corp. for two years when he was succeeded by hardbitten Frederic Gallup Coburn. President Coburn had served approximately two years last week when suddenly he relinquished the executive office on the 47th floor of Manhattan's Chanin Building to a broad-framed young man with a grin and a pipe. It was not surprising that the name of the president-elect, La Motte Turck Cohu, should be better known in Wall Street than in airway operations. Avco, which has yet to show black ink on a profit & loss statement, is of prime concern to the bankers who underwrote its $40,000,000 financing and who own a large part of its shares.

The formal announcement of Mr. Coburn's resignation reminded observers that he had taken office because of his partnership in the firm of Sanderson & Porter, management engineers. Sanderson & Porter had been retained to effect "the development, in an orderly manner, of the business of the subsidiaries of The Aviation Corporation." Now, said the announcement, S. & P.'s work was finished.

Gruff, bespectacled President Coburn had tied the sprawling transport line of the corporation into the closely knit system which is now American Airways Inc. He abandoned some unprofitable lines and added new routes until it was possible to fly from Montreal to Los Angeles via American Airways. Before he took office Avco had more than 80 subsidiaries (including schools, charter services, factories, sales companies). Before he left there were less than 20. His economies reduced a net operating loss of $2,464,000 for the first nine months of 1930, to $628,000 for the same period last year.*

Hardworking, conscientious President Coburn had his critics in the directorate. Some said he erred in his manufacturing policy. When, last year, youthful Sherman Mills Fairchild retrieved his Kreider-Reisner Aircraft Co. Inc. and aerial camera companies from Avco, the corporation retained the Fairchild airplane factory at Farmingdale, L. I. and proceeded to build a new single-engine mail-&-passenger plane called the Pilgrim. This manufacturing operation, said Mr. Coburn's critics, was extravagant. The plane, they said, is already obsolete. Others found fault with the president's insistence on burdening himself with detailed responsibility (by which he threatened his health). It was, they said, inefficient administration.

To Avco's working personnel, who had developed a deep affection for their president, his departure was a shock. He had just returned from Arizona with a victory over Errett Lobban Cord's Century Pacific Air Lines Ltd. Arizona's Corporation Commission had refused Century a certificate of convenience & necessity to carry intrastate passengers on a route paralleling American Airways. Three days after his return President Coburn summoned all office employes into the maple-paneled board room, gripped the back of a chair, bade them goodby. Said he at the end, "I've had such a good time," and walked out in tears.

An investment broker, President-elect Cohu learned aviation from the inside after his firm organized the investment trust called Air Investors Inc. (a substantial stockholder in Aviation Corp.). When the management of that firm became involved, Broker Cohu was made president. Year ago he was elected a director of Avco, became known as "a sort of Col. House of the directorate." He held no other office but was always being called into important committee meetings.

At Princeton (1917) "Turck" Cohu roomed for four years with his brother Henry Wallace ("Wally"). He was intercollegiate light-heavyweight wrestling champion. Today his weight is exactly the same--175 Ib.--and he still likes to wrestle at the New York Athletic Club. Also he plays good golf at Southampton, L. I. with his friend Publisher Wilfred John Funk. More than golf or wrestling he likes chess. He is rarely seen without a pipe between his teeth.

Because his wife, the former Didi H. Muus, is Norwegian, Mr. Cohu built for her at Southampton a summer home like a Norwegian mountain house. A Norwegian architect designed it, Norwegian craftsmen were imported to make the wood carvings. Mrs. Cohu named the house Gissa Bu. Her husband, who has never been to Norway, says he does not know what Gissa Bu means.*

As President Coburn's last public act concerned Motormaker Cord, so did President Cohu's first public act. Because of a "prediction" in Walter Winchell's gossip colyum, President Cohu found it necessary to issue a denial that Mr. Cord was about to buy American Airways.

President's Cohu's next official duty was a sad one. He had to investigate the crash of an American Airways plane with five passengers aboard at Calimesa, Calif., near San Bernardino. Pilot, co-pilot and passengers were killed. Among the passengers was a humble 21-year-old Avco employe, Albert Coburn, outgoing President Coburn's son.

*1931 annual statement not yet issued.

*Bu = dwelling. Norwegians in Manhattan last week could agree on no translation of Gissa. Mrs. Cohu was absent in Norway.

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