Changes of the Week

¶ Bowman Gray, 50, moved up from executive vice president to president of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (Camel, Winston, Salem), second largest U.S. tobacco manufacturer (first: American Tobacco Co.). He succeeds Edward A. Darr, 67, who becomes vice chairman of the board and chairman of the executive committee; Chairman John C. Whitaker remains as chief executive officer. Bowman Gray, older brother of Defense Mobilizer Gordon Gray, began at Reynolds as a salesman in 1930 while his father was company president, became assistant sales manager in 1939, sales manager in 1952, executive vice president in 1955. A chief stockholder (50,000 shares), he has had a hand in pushing Reynolds sales toward this year's record goal of $1 billion, faces the task of keeping up sales of Winston, now the best-selling filter tip, which is pressed by Kent.

¶ Yves Saint-Laurent, 21, designer for Paris' fashion-pacing House of Dior, was named chief designer, thereby becoming successor to the late Christian Dior. Lean, shy and bespectacled, Algerian-born Saint-Laurent got his start at only 17 when Dior plucked him from a fashion-designer contest he was judging, made the boy his protege. Saint-Laurent took charge of Dior's lower-priced clothes for Dior's spring collection this year, is unofficially credited with designing nearly half of this fall's.

¶ Dr. Walter R. Dornberger, 62, former German general and one of Germany's leading rocket engineers before and during World War II, was named technical assistant to President Leston Faneuf of Bell Aircraft Corp. Dornberger directed V-1 and rocket-powered V-2 missiles at Peenemunde, Germany's big rocket-research center, where he bossed Wernher von Braun, a top U.S. Army missile expert. Dornberger later developed Bell's Rascal, air-to-surface guided missile how used by the Strategic Air Command.

¶ J. (for James) Russell Duncan, 40, vice president of Chicago's Consolidated Foundries & Mfg. Corp. since 1954, was elected president of Minneapolis-Moline, farm implement company founded in 1929, succeeding Henry S. Reddig, 50, who resigned. The move followed a shareholder revolt in which Raider J. Patrick Lannan (TIME, July 25, 1955) and two associates won places on Minneapolis-Moline's board of directors two months ago. Lannan's H. M. Byllesby & Co. bought into Minneapolis-Moline two years ago with Henry Reddig and his brother Edward when the company's prospects looked good and its stock was selling at $18 a share (with a book value of $47). But the company failed to strengthen its competitive position, was hard-hit by the slump in farm income, saw its earnings drop from $66 million in 1956 to about $57 million in the fiscal year ending Nov. 1, its stock fall to $10 a share. Tall, Arizona-born Russ Duncan is considered strong on sales, will try to overcome the poor sales and service system that has caused most of Minneapolis-Moline's troubles. Says Lannan, who submitted Duncan to psychological tests before hiring him: "This is a 363-day-a-year man. He takes off Thanksgiving and Christmas."

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