Changes of the Week

P: Max Robb, 62, was elected president of City Stores Co. in a shake-up by Philadelphia Financier Albert M. Greenfield, 70, who has controlled the sixth-ranking department and specialty-store chain for 26 years. Robb, who started at twelve as a stockboy, stepped up from heading Philadelphia's Lit Bros., biggest of the chain's eleven major links, which range from New York's Franklin Simon to New Orleans' Maison Blanche. An aggressive merchandiser, Robb will try to streamline operations while Greenfield concentrates on expanding outlets. In the six months ending last July, the chain grossed $120 million from 57 outlets in 15 states, but ended up with a $234,000 deficit. Also boosted, from senior vice president to board vice chairman, was Greenfield's son, Princeton-educated Gordon K. Greenfield, 42, who may take over eventually.

P: Albert L. Nickerson, 47, Socony Mobil Oil Co. president since 1955, will become chief executive officer next month when Board Chairman B. (for Benjamin) Brewster Jennings, 59, retires after 37 years with the company. Nickerson, a New Englander who looks like Cinemactor Randolph Scott, came up fast. Graduating from Harvard in 1933, he joined Socony as a service-station attendant, moved up to become a director within 13 years. Despite the current domestic oil glut, he has spoken out strongly for continued imports on the ground that high-cost U.S. producers will be unable to match soaring future demand.

P: Leonard S. ("Luke") Hobbs, 61, one of the world's top aviation engineers, will retire next April as vice chairman of United Aircraft Corp. Wyoming-born Luke Hobbs, an engineering graduate of Texas A. & M., designed the carburetor for Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis. As chief engineer for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, which grew into United's engine division in 1935, he developed the R-2800 Double Wasp, workhorse engine of World War II, and the R-4360 Wasp Major, most powerful aircraft piston engine ever made. Pratt & Whitney was a late starter with postwar jets, but Hobbs soon lapped the field with his J-57, the engine that earned him the prized Collier Trophy in 1953, made Pratt & Whitney No. 1 engine supplier for U.S. military aircraft.

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