Those O'Neils

Under crusty old (74) William Francis O'Neil, Akron's General Tire & Rubber Co. is probably the fastest-growing, most diversified company in the rubber industry. Last year General Tire and its 46 subsidiaries and affiliates grossed more than $730 million (net: $26 million), turned out such diverse products as tires, rocket engines, tennis balls, plastics, steel, wrought iron, movies and girdles. The reason for so many far-flung enterprises, explains O'Neil blithely, is that "I wanted enough diversification so that my sons wouldn't have to scrap with each other." Last week Board Chairman O'Neil shuffled General Tire's management, laid out new areas of command for his sons; he named Son Michael Gerald ("Jerry"), 38, to be General Tire's new president; Thomas Francis, 45, vice chairman of the board; John James, 42, chairman of the finance committee.

"That Tom." Like their father, the O'Neil boys (Son Hugh was killed in World War II) all went to Holy Cross, afterward were encouraged to carve out their own satrapies in General Tire's vast corporate domain. In 1940 "W.O." decided to buy Akron radio station WJW to sound off against the activities of the United Rubber Workers in his plant. When he found he could not blast away without granting equal time to the union, he bought the money-losing station anyway and turned it over to his eldest son, William Michael. In a year's time, Bill turned WJW's red ink into black, sold the station for a fat profit. Eventually Bill, now 46, left his father's company, bought Miami's WSKP.

Bill's success in radio got father so interested that he bought the Yankee network, put hulking (6 ft. 4 in., 240 Ibs.) Son Tom in command. (A football end at Holy Cross, Tom would have made All-America, says his coach, "if he didn't spend all his time trying to sell me rubber footballs.") In a series of deals, Tom picked up the 45-station Don Lee network on the West Coast, bought control of the Mutual Broadcasting System, consolidated the lot into General Teleradio. Stepping nimbly into television, he began syndicating old Hollywood movies to stations across the U.S., was soon shopping for a larger film library. After weeks of haggling, Tom bought the shaky RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. from Howard Hughes for $25 million, started distributing RKO's backlog of some 700 films on television. Says Tom's father: "That Tom, he sure makes money."

Son John, a Harvard Law School graduate, was General Tire's treasurer until 1950, when he left to study for the Roman Catholic priesthood. He abandoned his studies and returned in 1955 as chief financial adviser and overseer of the company's expansion and diversification. New President Jerry, nicknamed "Smooth" by his brothers for his personality and business savvy, has been his father's executive assistant since 1951, has pioneered the expansion into the chemical and plastics fields. Even more expansion is necessary if W.O. is to prevent his 25 grandchildren (16 boys, nine girls) from scrapping with each other in the future.

"Why?" The son of an Akron department-store owner, O'Neil Sr. founded the tire company in 1915, aided by $50,000 put up by his father. Impatient to grow, he would prowl around General Tire's departments, demand of executives: "Why the hell aren't you fellows making more money?" By merger and acquisition, he built General Tire into the rubber industry's fifth largest company (after Goodyear, Firestone, U.S. Rubber, and Goodrich). In 1944 he made his best deal, bought a half interest in the fledgling Aerojet Engineering Corp. for $75,000, bought another 34% chunk of the company when its sales zoomed. Last year Aerojet-General, under former Secretary of the Navy Dan Kimball, accounted for nearly half ($364 million) of General Tire's sales.

After ramrodding General Tire for 45 years, W.O. is not ready to retire. That was not the import of last week's shifts. While Jerry gets his feet wet in the presidency, his father will still be around asking questions like "Why the hell aren't you fellows making more money?"

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