Corporations: A Place in the Sun

In its 83-year history, Philadelphia-based Sun Oil Co. has had only three presidents: Founder Joseph Newton Pew, his son J. Howard Pew, and Robert G. Dunlop, who was picked for the job in 1947, when he was a 37-year-old comptroller. Last week Sun Oil again leaped a generation to pick a chief operations officer. Directors reached deep into the ranks and selected H. (for Harry) Robert Sharbaugh, 40, who up to now has been a little-known assistant to the vice president in charge of manufacturing. The company did nothing to discourage speculation that Sharbaugh is being groomed to become president No. 4.

Sharbaugh will be in charge of all exploration, manufacturing and marketing for Sun, which earned $164 million on revenues of $1.8 billion last year and is the 42nd biggest industrial company in the U.S. He is expected to give a youthful cast to Sun, which has a deserved reputation for financial conservatism. His big promotion is not the result of a single corporate coup, but rather, says a high-level insider, of the fact that "Sharbaugh has been good at everything he has tried." He joined the company as an 18-year-old summer employee while studying chemical engineering at Carnegie Tech, moved steadily up in manufacturing and refinery management and took a year off in 1960-61 to earn a master's degree in management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The new operations chief will take over some of the command now held by President Dunlop, the chief executive. The move also represents a further step toward retirement by Sun's 87-year-old chairman, J. Howard Pew, who is still consulted on executive affairs. Pew will now have more time to devote to his favorite causes. They have included the John Birch Society and the United Presbyterian Church, which he once blasted for pronouncements that "frequently coincide with Communist objectives."