Changes of the Week

P: Bowman Gray, 52, was named chairman and chief executive of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (Camels, Winston Salem), largest U.S. tobacco manufacturer (1958 sales: $1,146,559,000). He succeeds John Clarke Whitaker, 68, who was named to the newly created post of honorary chairman. Gray started as a salesman in 1930, became sales manager in 1952, executive vice president in 1955 and president in 1957. It was during Gray's presidency that Reynolds wrested the lead in U.S. tobacco sales from American Tobacco Co. Succeeding Gray as president is F. G. ("Bill") Carter, 47, former vice president and sales manager.

P: Charles Greenough Mortimer, 59, was elected chairman of General Foods Corp. He will continue as chief executive officer, a post he has held since 1954, when he was named president of the nation's largest packaged-food processor (Jell-0, Maxwell House coffee, Birds Eye frozen foods). As chairman, a previously vacant post, Mortimer will concentrate on the company's future growth and development. Succeeding Mortimer as president is Wayne C. Marks, 55, who will also be chief operating officer. Marks joined General Foods in the position of clerk in 1926, was appointed executive vice president in 1958.

P: Lawrence Cowen, president of the Lionel Corp. since 1946, resigned as president and was named board chairman by a group of investors--headed by Lawyer Roy Cohn--which got control of more than 200,000 of Lionel's 720,000 outstanding shares. Ailing Lionel (1958 loss: $469,057), a leading toy-train maker, also produces baseball gloves, fishing gear and electronic devices. Cohn, once chief counsel of the late Senator Joseph McCarthy's Senate investigating subcommittee, said his group will name a new president in the near future and adopt "drastic marketing changes."

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