Dear TIME-Reader:

ROBERT W. CAPPS of Honolulu, a retired Hawaiian Pineapple Co. official, recently wrote to Advertising Director John McLatchie: "I am reclining on our lanai, looking out toward the surf . . . and wondering just who is John McLatchie? Is this another synthetic like Betty Crocker, or is he really a person?"

To reply in the same genial mood, John McLatchie waited for his Florida vacation, composed a letter while listening to the surf at Palm Beach. Then he sent it to Capps with a picture (see cut) to prove that he is not "synthetic."

"Mac," like many another Scotsman, is a man of twinkling good humor, a quality that has helped to make him an extraordinarily successful salesman. Born on a dairy farm near Ottawa, he served in the Canadian army in World War I, then went on what he thought would be a visit to the U.S. But he never returned to live in Canada. Instead, he got an advertising job with the Cleveland Press. Later he switched to national magazine advertising and came to TIME in 1937. Since then, he has been manager of our branch offices in Cleveland, Chicago and New York, and became TIME'S advertising manager in 1950 and advertising director on Jan. 1, 1954.

Now he directs the activities of 56 advertising representatives in ten offices throughout the U.S. Their job is to analyze the advertising needs of a wide variety of clients and potential clients, and to offer TIME and its high-level readership as a solution to those needs. Doing so, they deal in market research, promotion, merchandising, and use their thorough knowledge of the magazine and all its editorial and publishing developments. The result in 1955 was that business invested almost $38 million in TIME'S pages.

Busy as he is, Mac still finds time for his favorite hobby -- golf. A few years ago he made a dual-purpose pilgrimage to Scotland: to visit old Cumnock, the home of his ancestors, and to play at St. Andrews. In a Cumnock cemetery Mac almost stumbled over a fallen tombstone inscribed: "Here lies John McLatchie, died in 1797." It gave him a start, Mac says, to see his own name on a tombstone. On the Old Course at St. Andrews eight-handicap Golfer McLatchie, according to his diary, "shot an 84 with three birdies and a horrible 10."

I can tell you that the rest of us golfers around here are impressed with that score; the Old Course at St. Andrews is as tough as they come.

Cordially yours,

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