Document OzbRNBvdgwn50QXz4BpZOYOGX

FILE NAME: Crane Company (CRC) DATE: 1959 Apr 29 DOC#: CRC027 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Newspaper Article - New York Times P residen t of C rane Co. R esigns; H ead of P orter N am ed Chairm an CHICAGO, April 28 (AP)-- Neele E. Stearns resigned to day as president of the Crane Company and Thomas M. Evans was elected chairman and chief executive officer. The shift in top management was announced by Alfons Landaf president of the Penn-Texas Corporation. Mr.- Landa had been named earlier in the day to the enlarged directorate of the plumbing supplies concern. * L. H. T. Clegg, president of Crane, Ltd., Montreal, a wholly . owned Crane subsidiary, was named acting president of the parent corporation. Mr. Evans, chairman of the H. K. Porter Company of P itts burgh, was elected to one of the four new directorships. The board was increased from seven to eleven members to stave off a proxy fight for control of the company. . This agreement was reached in January after heavy buying of Crane stock by a syndicate headed by Messrs. Evans and Landa. . The other new members of the board are R . B. Crane, rep resenting the Crane family, and lE. A, Locke Jr., president of 'the.Union Tank Car-Company. : Mr. Stearns also resigned as ' Ia director. He will remain with Crane as a consultant. | Mr. Evans said the change in management was the result of a difference over policy. He said Mr. Clegg's appointment was temporary and that a president should be elected within a few months. The new chairman reiterated an earlier statem ent by Mr. Stearns that Crane had no in tention of abandoning its Chi# cago operations. Fear of such a prospect developed among members of a United Steel workers local after a division of Crane in Chicago was shut down. The union informally tried to obtain a voice in today's stock holders' meeting but the cam paign came to naught. Handbills were passed out in the neighborhood of the Crane plant. The union asked that any stockholders among em ployes give their voting rights by proxy, to David McDonald, international president of the union, so that he could repre sent employe interests a t the stockholders' meeting. Mr. Mc iDonald took no part in the 'campaign and did not attend the meeting. In his report to stockholders, Mr. Stearns said Crane's ales Idropped from $378,000,000 in 11957 to $336,000,000 in 1958. He .attributed the drop to the gen'eral business recession. &l)cjMrttrjjork finies Published: April 29, 1959 Copyright The New York Times