Missiles to Miniatures

The man who bossed the Army missile program and helped put the U.S. into space last week took on an unlikely new job. Major General (ret.) John B. Medaris, 58, who quit the Army six months ago to protest the Administration's "reluctant dragon" attitude toward space, was named president and chief executive officer of the Lionel Corp., the nation's largest producer of miniature trains (1959 sales: $15.8 million). Medaris' special qualification for the job, aside from proved administrative abilities: a longtime fondness for electric trains, which he used to collect as a boy.

Lionel's chairman, and the chief of a syndicate that took over the failing company last year and put it on its feet, is Roy M. Cohn, longtime aide to Senator Joseph McCarthy and leading inquisitor in McCarthy's bitter row with the Army. Cohn viewed more than 25 executives and engaged two management consultant firms before finding "the impossible man." "They said he didn't exist," said Cohn, "but here he is." Medaris takes a prudently tolerant view of working with the Army's former antagonist, says: "Let us forgive the mistakes of youth."

As top man at Lionel, Medaris will earn $50,000 a year, plus an option on 20,000 shares of Lionel stock pegged at 95% of last week's price. He intends to develop Lionel's standard lines of trains and toys, but also to expand gradually into grownup electronics (Lionel proposed a merger with Anton-Imco Electronics Corp. last June). He does not plan to go after Government contracts. Says he: "Development of a large military line is not our prime objective. I don't plan to create a corporate image that depends on the vagaries of the defense business."

Other changes of the week:

P: Thomas G. Lanphier Jr., 44, onetime vice president of General Dynamics' Convair Division, was appointed vice president in charge of planning of the Fairbanks Whitney Corp., a big (1959 sales: $149 million), diversified manufacturing outfit. Lanphier's outspoken criticisms of the Administration's defense effort and blunt attacks on rival missile makers brought down the wrath of General Dynamics Chairman Frank Pace, who forced Lanphier out. Lanphier then campaigned for his longtime friend, Missouri's Democratic Senator Stuart Symington, whose special assistant he had been when Symington was Secretary of the Air Force. When Symington lost to Kennedy in Los Angeles, Lanphier began to look for a job outside the defense field. He found it at Fairbanks Whitney, which does only 5% of its business with the Government.

P: Edmund F. Martin, 57, was elected president of the Bethlehem Steel Corp. the nation's second largest steel producer (after U.S. Steel). He succeeds Arthur B. Homer, who becomes chairman of the board and continues as chief executive officer. Chicago-born Ed Martin joined Bethlehem in 1922 after graduating from Stevens Institute of Technology, worked his way up in the mills from a repairman's helper to general manager of the giant Lackawanna plant in 1950. vice president for steel operations in 1958.

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