Ben Duffy's Heir?

As president of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, genial, roughhewn Bernard Cornelius Duffy, 55, is a rare figure in the advertising world. Title to rarity: he has nearly quadrupled BBDO's billings (now $200 million), while showing remarkable personal stamina in the process. He pulled through a serious ulcer operation in which two-thirds of his stomach was cut away, and a coronary attack, bounced back each time to supervise the fortunes of the growing agency. Last week, five months after he suffered a severe cerebral hemorrhage, Madison Avenue was wondering whether Ben Duffy could come back again.

No one was willing to bet against rugged Ben Duffy--especially in the face of his determination to recover. Duffy's whole right side was paralyzed as a result of his attack. Yet when BBDO Chairman Bruce Barton visited him recently at his Westchester home, he found Duffy standing in the door of his room, supported only by an arm around his wife's neck. While Barton watched in amazement, Duffy walked around the room. He has already learned to write with his left hand.

Nonetheless, while Duffy wages his battle, BBDO picked an executive officer to act in his absence. The new boss: Executive Vice President Charles H. Brower, 55, the agency's top creative man, who was made general manager and vice chairman of the executive committee, and seems well established as Ben Duffy's heir apparent. Said Brower last week: "Nobody will ever step into Duffy's shoes --it's impossible."

Ben Duffy began his career at BBDO as a messenger boy. Tall, lumbering Charlie Brower also started under inauspicious circumstances. A New Jersey native and Rutgers graduate ('25), he approached the agency in 1926 after a stint as teacher and basketball coach in a New Jersey high school. He was turned down flat. After two years and several more turndowns, he was hired as a copywriter--only to discover that the man who hired him had been fired two days later. After three weeks of sitting around the office, Brower convinced the agency that he really had been hired. When asked what salary had been offered him, enterprising Charlie Brower effortlessly gave himself his first raise.

Brower became vice president in 1940, one of several executive vice presidents in 1946. Along the way, he earned a reputation for the sardonic quip and an analytical approach to problems. Last week, Charlie Brower displayed both qualities. Said he: "Many of the people who wouldn't hire me at first are still here--and they still say they were right."

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