The Two Bills

In Milwaukee's Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co., Bill Roberts and Bill John son are known by everybody as "The Two Bills." Reason: they were scarcely ever apart on their way up the executive ladder; both had become members of the 104-year-old company's executive committee.

Last week the Two Bills got new jobs : William A. Roberts, 53, became president of Allis-Chalmers, to succeed the late Walter Geist (TIME, Feb. 12), and William C. Johnson, 48, became executive vice president.

Missouri-born, farm-bred Bill Roberts went to Allis-Chalmers as a salesman in 1924, fresh from the Springfield (Mo.) Business College and a position with a Missouri road construction company. In 1931 he Became sales manager of the tractor division, and ten years later its general manager. The division developed such products as the first tractor with rubber tires, an all-crop harvester that outsold every other combine, a huge 20-ton crawler tractor, and during World War II made high-speed crawler prime movers for the Army. Since the end of the war, the tractor division's sales have been five times the best prewar years. The division now does 60% of the company's business.

As boss of the company's general machinery division, Bill Johnson also kept new products rolling out, from the first coal-burning gas turbine locomotive to a mechanical kidney for use in hospitals. Together, the Two Bills helped push Allis-Chalmers from ninth among U.S. farm equipment manufacturers to third. (First: International Harvester Co. Second: Deere & Co.) Said President Roberts: "We're a team."

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