Man of Missiles

More and more, attention turns on the missiles race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Last week Defense Secretary Charles Erwin Wilson moved to strengthen the U.S. position. He appointed a topflight scientist to head the nation's missile program, then handed him the tools he will need for the job.

Stepping into one of the hottest spots in Washington is Eger (pronounced Eager) Vaughan Murphree, 57, an industrial research expert with little specific knowledge of missiles but an impressive record for getting results in engineering projects. No stranger to atomic weapons, Murphree was a World War II member of James B. Conant's scientific research and development committee, under which the Manhattan Project was launched to build the Abomb. Later Murphree supervised the design of a heavy-water plant in British Columbia and served as chairman of a group that helped develop centrifugal separation of uranium isotopes. Since World War II he has been a member of the AEC's general advisory committee.

Murphree goes to the Defense Department from the presidency of the Esso Research and Engineering Co., research subsidiary of Standard Oil Co. (New Jersey). Since 1930 he has directed research and development programs. Before that he was a chemical engineer, small-town schoolteacher and all-Southern football tackle at the University of Kentucky. His background provided exactly what Wilson was looking for in his missiles chief: high technological skill, proven administrative ability, a talent for getting along with people, experience in a big organization.

A calm, friendly man with a reputation for an even temper, eager Engineer Murphree lives quietly with his wife in suburban Summit. N.J. He relaxes by listening to records on a hi-fi set he assembled and installed himself, and by playing 16-handicap golf. Fellow golfers say he could trim strokes off his score if he would only quit experimenting with new theories on how to improve his game.

His calm, low key persuasiveness should help him at the Pentagon, but Wilson points to something else in Murphree's background as an equal asset: a quarter-century of effective service in the vast Standard hierarchy. Such a man, Wilson reasons, should not "get frustrated too quick in this big place." Then, with characteristic Wilson candor, the Defense Secretary made Murphree's position of authority clear. "I think if he gets into a jam between the services," Wilson said, "I will be in it with him."

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