It's Gott to Be Good

Beset by a plethora of problems, the nation's steelmakers are pinning their hopes for the future on far-reaching technological advances. Accordingly, U.S. Steel, the industry leader, is now in the midst of a threeyear, $1.8 billion program to modernize its plants. With this stake in new production methods, U.S. Steel last week chose an up-from-the-mills operations man as its next president. He is Pittsburgh-born Edwin H. Gott, 59, the company's executive vice president for production, who on July 1 will become No. 2 man behind Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Roger M. Blough.

In succeeding Leslie B. Worthington, 64, who steps down after almost eight years as president, Gott takes on U.S. Steel's highest administrative post, bearing responsibility for carrying out Blough's policy decisions. Organization charts aside, decision making at the $4.41-billion-a-year steel giant has actually been pretty much of a troika operation, with policy matters largely entrusted to Blough, Worthington and Robert C. Tyson, 61, powerful chairman of the company's finance committee. Gott's elevation should do little to change that arrangement; like his predecessor, he will remain in Pittsburgh, confer with the New York-based Blough and Tyson by telephone.

Another Candidate? A soft-spoken man who joined U.S. Steel in 1937 as an industrial engineer at its Youngstown, Ohio, works, Gott moved quickly through a host of managerial positions at other company plants before returning to Youngstown as general superintendent in 1951. Two years later, he assumed the first of several company-wide posts, became executive vice president for production in 1959.

The problems that Gott and his colleagues face are best illustrated by the fact that U.S. Steel, which at one time accounted for 65% of the nation's raw steel production, has slipped to 25%. Like the rest of the industry, the company has been hurt in recent years by Japanese and European imports, competition from other materials, and belated modernization. As its five spanking-new basic-oxygen furnaces (three more are being built) and its ultramodern continuous-casting operations attest, the company is finally starting to meet the situation headon.

One further task that lies ahead is picking a successor to Blough, who will retire when he reaches 65 in January 1969. The choice is especially important since U.S. Steel's chairman doubles informally as the industry's chief spokesman, a role that came under a harsh spotlight during Blough's 1962 confrontation with President Kennedy. The man generally figured to have the inside track for the top job is Executive Vice President R. Heath Larry, 53, a former company labor negotiator who now serves as Blough's right-hand man. Ed Gott's new responsibilities might well signal the emergence of another candidate.

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