Proxy Fighter by Proxy

ALLAN PRICE KIRBY

ONE of the richest men the in the U.S. is Allan Price Kirby, 68, whose personal fortune is estimated at nearly $300 million. He is chairman, president and controlling stockholder of Alleghany Corp., the vast holding company whose assets include control of the New York Central and the $3 billion Investors Diversified Services, the biggest U.S. mutual fund group. Despite this considerable power, quiet courtly Allan Kirby habitually wears the look of a doleful Alfred Hitchcock--and last week he had his reasons. Texas Millionaire Clint Murchison and his two sons, once Kirby's partners in Alleghany (TIME, Sept. 19), are trying to take Alleghany away from him in what was shaping up as the biggest proxy fight in many a year.

Allan Kirby is an old proxy fighter himself, but in the past he was able to do his battling by proxy: he supplied the capital while the fighting was done by his more flamboyant partner, Financier Robert Young. While Young killed himself two years ago, Kirby had no choice but to take over the management of Alleghany, soon showed that the days of Young's financial derring-do were out. Explains Kirby: "Young had such a restless disposition that he could such not a resist the fatal mistake of jumping in and out of good investments before they even came close to meeting their potential."

Kirby does no jumping. He inherited some $50 million from his father, put most of it into blue chips and let his profits rise. He is the largest single stockholder in the Woolworth Co., in the New York Central, in Manhattan's Manufacturers Trust Co. as well as in Alleghany. Alleghany not only controls the Central and I.D.S. but also owns 51% of the Class B stock of the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

Kirby's father made his money in nickels and dimes, starting as a bookkeeper in the Watertown, N.Y. country store that launched the Woolworth chain. His father soon took the Woolworth gospel to Wilkes Barre, Pa., opened his worth own store there. Young Allan went to Lawrenceville preparatory school and La fayette College, learned to value nickels by working in the store on holidays for 5-c- an hour. After a World War I stint in the Navy, he returned to build up a thriving Chrysler auto dealership. The turning point in his career came in 1935, when his father's tax lawyer, Walter Orr, introduced the young businessman to another ambitious young man, Bob Young

The pair was oddly matched. The volatile Young sniffed out the big financial game and was generally credited with Alleghany's success or failure. But cautious Kirby made the final decisions--because he had the money. Since Young perpetually in motion, they usually conferred long distance by phone were never very close socially. Once Kirby invited Young to his salmon-fishing camp on the Gaspe Peninsula. Kirby complained that Young spent most of the weekend writing a poem on salmon fishing. But the poem signed by Young, now hangs framed on Kirby s office wall, together with a picture signed: "To AIlan, the steadfast who made it possible--with my undying appreciation."

When Young died, Kirby simplified the company's capital structure, placed the preferred stock on a current-dividend basis and let Alleghany's cash board build up. His reluctance to put Alleghany's cash to work caused a break with the Murchisons, as well as Young's widow who sold her stock to the Murchisons to abet their proxy battle.

Tycoon Kirby keeps a close watch on Alleghany's nickels and dimes. He often hefts the mail sent by subordinates to see if they have used unnecessary postage, shoots thema stiff A.P.K. reprimand if they have. As a hobby he collects, appropriately enough dime novels, e.g., the Liberty Boys, the Nick Carter series. But when it comes to houses, Kirby acts the tycoon. For fishing he keeps the Gaspe camp; for winter quail hunting he has a ten-room Civil War Plantation house on a lake in South Carolina; for football weekends he bought Chateau Chavaniac, a replica of Lafayette's villa in France, at Easton, Pa., frequently flies in a planeload of friends for Lafayette College games. He has an 1812 mansion in Morristown, NJ., which he has converted into an office, commutes to Manhattan twice a week. He lives on a 64-acre estate in nearby Harding Township with his wife Marian, close to their four children.

To complaints about his unimaginative management of cash-heavy Alleghany, Kirby replies that when he took over after Young's death, the stock was selling at 4 7/8 but is now selling at 9 7/8. Kirby, who believes that the current slump is more serious than most people think, sees no point now in speculating. "In today's market," he say," we make money by not investing it."

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