Exit Hurley

Ending months of bickering, Roy T. Hurley, 63, resigned last week as president, chairman and director of the CurtissWright Corp. Hurley joined C.W. in 1949 when 16 of its 19 plants were idle, revitalized the ailing company. He slashed costs, ramrodded through a diversification program into electronics, plastics, nuclear reactors, rockets and ultrasonics. But in pushing diversification, he let his research and work on products coming off the line lag. Although the Wright turbo compound engine was standard on both the DC-7 and Super Constellation, it proved so unsatisfactory that airlines were not interested in Wright engines for the new jet airliners. Defense business also faded.

Last November Hurley called a New York press conference to introduce a radical new type of internal combustion engine. The news made C.W. stock jump 8| points to the year's high. Later that same week Hurley had another announcement: a 40% cut in the company's quarterly dividend. SEC and New York Stock Exchange called Hurley on the carpet to account for the suspicious timing of the two announcements, and directors grumbled about the damage to the company's reputation. After a sharp drop in profits, Hurley was buffeted by angry stockholders' questions for three hours at the annual meeting in April, finally cried: "I'm called a bum and I'm called a genius, but I think I'm somewhere in between." Suc ceeding Hurley is Corporate Lawyer T. Roland Berner, 49, who becomes chairman and chief executive officer. But he is ex pected to keep the job only temporarily until a permanent boss is named. Berner has been a director since 1949. -He attended Harvard ('31) and Columbia Law School ('35), then joined a Manhattan law firm, served in the Navy during World War II, set up his own practice in 1945. His specialty: representing minority stock-.holders in disputes with the management.

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