Business: Chemical Combination

• Share

For the first time in its 52 years, enterprising Dow Chemical Co. had no Dow at its helm. Dr. Willard Henry Dow, killed in a plane crash March 31, had succeeded his father as head of the business founded on a process for extracting bromine from the briny seas under Midland, Mich. Willard Dow had developed enough new products and processes to make the company the fourth biggest U.S. chemical manufacturer (600 products, $171 million gross and $21 million profit in 1948). Last week the directors picked two men to fill Willard Dow's shoes.

In as president went tall, affable Leland Ira Doan, 54, who married Dow's sister and went to work for the company 31 years ago. He had risen rapidly, thanks to his selling talents and techniques (e.g., he catalogued prospective customers down to their hobbies before tackling them). As Dow's No. 1 sales executive for the last 19 years, Doan held the No. 2 job in the company, finding markets for the new products (magnesium, plastics, pharmaceuticals, etc.) which Dow turned out.

In as board chairman went wiry, 69-year-old Earl W. Bennett, treasurer and Willard Dow's right-hand man on finances. He had guided the company's spectacular expansion during depression years.

In the offing: 22-year-old Herbert Henry Dow II, Willard's only son, now a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.