Familiar Faces

Filling out his galaxy of presidential appointments last week, President Kennedy plucked a few stars from previous Administrations, mostly Democratic. Among them:

James Edwin Webb, 54, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Another of Kennedy's Phi Beta Kappa keymen (University of North Carolina, '28), chunky, intense Jim Webb was a wartime Marine pilot, Harry Truman's budget director (1946-49) and Dean Acheson's capable Under Secretary of State (1949-52). A well-to-do lawyer and businessman, he is a director of McDonnell Aircraft, which makes the Mercury space capsule, and assistant to the president of Kerr-McGee Oil Industries, whose driving force is Oklahoma Democrat Bob Kerr, the chairman of the Senate Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee. Webb will give up interests in both firms to go to NASA, where his organizational talents are badly needed.

David Kirkpatrick Este Bruce, 62, Ambassador to Britain. The only diplomat ever to hold the top three ambassadorships in Europe--to France, Germany and Britain--Bruce has also won repute as a politician, industrialist, soldier, spymaster, wine connoisseur and art devotee.

Scion of a wealthy landed Maryland family. Bruce led a Princeton campus revolt against the snobbish eating clubs, enlisted in World War I as a private, later won election to the Maryland assembly from a Jewish slum district, rolled up millions as a broker and entrepreneur (oil, race tracks, distilleries, newspapers), in World War II became chief of espionage and sabotage in Europe for the Office of Strategic Services, won military decorations from seven countries. As a postwar diplomat, lifetime Democrat Bruce helped to forge the Schuman Plan and European Defense Community. Last week the British could scarcely conceal their delight over getting him. Despite the Kennedy drive for a big increase in embassy expense allowances. Bruce is one nominee who would have little trouble paying social expenses out of his own pocket.

Frank Daniel Reeves, 44. Special Assistant to the President. Reeves is a veteran of the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations, fought the integration battles of Little Rock and Northern Virginia as a lawyer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and built up a prosperous Washington private law practice. He is the first Negro to hold the job of Democratic National Committeeman from the District of Columbia, and during the campaign was a key Kennedy adviser in a highly successful drive for Negro votes.

Harold Francis Under, 60, chairman of the Export-Import Bank. Wealthy Philanthropist Linder was a partner with Wall Street's blue-ribbon brokerage house of Carl M. Loeb, Rhodes & Co., then president of General American Investors, Inc.

After World War II service as a chairborne lieutenant commander in the Navy Department, he was briefly Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs in the Truman Administration.

William Lucius Gary, 50, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. To fill the job of stock market cop once held down with distinction by his father, President Kennedy broke ranks with Harvard, chose a Yaleman ('31) and Columbia law professor who is also Phi Beta Kappa. Between classes and text writing, avid Democrat Cary has been a counsel to many a Government agency, including SEC. President Kennedy also named Democrat J. Allen Frear, ex-Senator from Delaware, as a member of the commission, giving the Democrats a 3-to-2 majority.

Frank W. McCulloch, 55. chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. McCulloch, another Harvard-trained lawyer ('29), spent a decade in social-industrial relations work for the Congregational Christian Church, for the past dozen years was administrative assistant to Illinois Senator Paul Douglas, helped to draft many labor and welfare bills. He will be a chief referee in labor-management disputes.

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