FOR the past seven years in this 'space, as the Publisher, I have tried to communicate to you some of the excitement and sense of purpose that go with getting out this magazine, and to tell you about the people who do the job. Next week, when I take on my new duties as Senior Vice President of Time Inc., you will see a new signature here.

This, then, is the last Letter from this Publisher, and a fitting place to salute the many men and women in all departments who have made these years so full of achievement, so rewarding and pleasant.

It is also a pleasure to introduce the new Publisher, James R. Shepley, who conies to TIME--or rather re-turns to TIME--from the publisher's chair at FORTUNE. He brings with him a rare range of experience--re- porter, war correspondent, military aide, business executive.

Shepley was born to journalism. His father was editor of the Harris- burg (Pa.) Daily Patriot. Jim cubbed on that paper after attending Dickinson College, went on to the Pittsburgh Press and the United Press. He worked for the U.P. in Washington until 1942, when he joined TIME'S bureau in the capital. To be a Washington correspondent had been the dream of his youth.

Shepley shipped out as a war correspondent early in World War II, a member of what was to become a distinguished team of Time Inc. war reporters. He covered Stilwell's assault on the Japanese in Burma, accompanied "Merrill's Marauders," a name he coined, reported Allied campaigns in the Southwest Pacific, and saw action in Europe, including the Battle of the Bulge.

Toward the end of the war, Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall asked him to join his staff. On leave of absence from Time Inc., Captain Shepley worked with Marshall for two years. He was U.S. staff officer at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, accompanied Marshall on his ill-starred mission to China in 1946, and helped the general in the writing and editing of his official war reports. He returned to home base in 1946 and two years later was made chief of the Washing- ton bureau, TIME'S largest. At 30, he was the youngest chief that bureau ever had. Since then he has served as Chief of the U.S. and Canadian News Service (1957), Assistant Publisher of LIFE (1960) and Publisher of FORTUNE (1964).

Jim Shepley is a practicing sports-man--big-game hunting, fishing, sailing. He has captained his yawl, Andromeda, on many a blue-water race, including the Newport-to-Bermuda run last spring.

To TIME'S new Publisher: Welcome aboard!

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