Last Trip

After 39 years with Kennecott Copper Corp., E. Tappan Stannard, 66, decided to retire. He had joined Kennecott in 1911 as a mining engineer in Chile, risen to general manager of Kennecott's Alaska mines five years later, and moved into the presidency in 1933. Under him, Kennecott, biggest copper producer in the U.S., boosted sales from $50 million to $350 million a year.

Before he retired, Stannard and Kennecott directors made sure that they had the right man to replace him. Since they were planning to spend $10 million to help develop gold mines in Africa, they picked Arthur Storke, 54, a mining man with an African background. Storke had trotted the globe and risen to the presidency of Climax Molybdenum Corp. He was an operating director of South Africa's Roan Antelope Copper Mines, Ltd., and of Rhodesian Selection Trust, Ltd.; during World War II, as minerals adviser to Britain's Ministry of Supply, he expedited mining operations in South Africa.

In preparation for taking over his new job at the end of this year, Storke decided to inspect all the Kennecott properties around the world, starting with the company's new titanium venture in Quebec into which--along with the New Jersey Zinc Co.--Kennecott was pouring $25 million. Boss of this project was Vice President Russell J. Parker, 52, one of Kennecott's top men.

When Storke took off from Manhattan on his trip last week, Parker and Stannard went along to show him the ropes. As their Quebec Airways DC-3 winged its way over the rugged bush country of Quebec, it crashed into a hill. All on board--23--were killed. With a top echelon of command wiped out, shocked Kennecott directors still had not decided this week on a new boss for the company.

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