THE ARMY'S NEW BOSS

Appointed Secretary of the Army: WILBER MARION BRUCKER, 61, Detroit lawyer and politician.

Early Life: Son of a Michigan lawyer and politician, Brucker resolved to become an orator when beaten by a girl in a high-school debate, thereafter talked tirelessly (and often tiringly) fof practice. Orphaned as a boy by his father's death, he waited on table at the University of Michigan, became a lawyer himself. In 1916 he marched off to Mexico in Pershing's expedition against Pancho Villa, later fought with General Douglas MacArthur's Rainbow Division in France. He came out with a Silver Star and a first lieutenant's silver bar. After the war he waited three years before marrying his wife Clara, a minister's daughter, because (she later explained) "the price of butter was too high" and money was short.

Career: Although his father had been a Democratic Congressman (1897-98), Brucker went into Republican politics. At 33 he became state attorney general and in 1931, at 36, governor of Michigan. He cut his own salary 10% (to $4,500 a year). "I feel," said Brucker, who dealt with millions at work and pinched pennies at home, "like a vagabond king." In his 1932 re-election campaign Mrs. Brucker tried to help, made a speech proclaiming: "Wilber has been a great governor. Two years ago, when he took office, the state had a deficit of $2,000,000. Today, in just a few short months, he has raised that to $8,000,000." Another time she told a meeting of Republican women that she and the governor were bedding apart because "we should all make sacrifices in this campaign." In the Democratic landslide, he lost. Brucker went back to law, became partner in a top Detroit law firm (Clark, Klein, Brucker and Waples) and chairman of the American Bar Association's committee on ethics. He never won office again, but as a party district leader dutifully rang doorbells in G.O.P. campaigns. Last year Defense Secretary Charlie Wilson called him to fill the Pentagon's top legal spot as general counsel. Brucker was questioned by Senator Joe McCarthy last March about the frayed old Peress case. When McCarthy, reaching for publicity, accused the President of creating a "conspiracy" of silence, Brucker burst out laughing. "It's not funny," growled Joe. When McCarthy asked military witnesses loaded questions, Brucker interrupted crisply: "Now wait; don't answer that. There are three or four questions in that one, Senator. Split 'em up and we'll answer." McCarthy soon folded.

When Charlie Wilson abruptly offered Brucker the Army secretaryship last week, he asked for time "to call the Missus." He phoned home to tell her, "I guess I'm in the Army now." Then he went back to Wilson's office and took on the job of bossing the 1,100,000-man U.S. Army.

Personality & Private Life. A sturdy 5 ft. 10 in., Brucker likes to hike, golf, swim in the pool at home in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich. In Washington he has not yet picked up a club, lives in a one-bedroom apartment where Mrs. Brucker collects Meissen china and 3-D photos. Their son is a third-generation lawyer in Detroit. Even-keeled Wilber Brucker neither drinks nor smokes, laughs readily and hail-fellows Odd Fellows, Masons, and a host of other fraternal brothers. At a recent Washington party he met a Soviet general, who asked if he had ever seen military service. "I was a corporal in the Army," said Brucker genially. "Well," said the Russian consolingly to the U.S. Army's boss-to-be, "don't let it give you an inferiority complex."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.