Personnel: New President at Ford

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¶ Michael William McCarthy, 57, president of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, the nation's largest brokerage firm, was named chairman and chief executive officer, filling the vacancy left by Winthrop H. Smith, who died last January. Trained in the grocery trade, McCarthy joined Merrill Lynch in 1940 to straighten out the firm's accounting and order-processing operations, then in a tangle because of merger with other firms using different procedures. To prepare, he worked in every department, then successfully tackled the tangles, moved up to a general partnership in 1944. The new president: George J. Leness, 57, formerly head of the firm's underwriting department, who has been with the firm for 16 years.

¶ William C. Decker, 60, was promoted from president to chairman and chief executive officer of the Corning Glass Works. He replaces Amory Houghton Sr., 61, former Ambassador to France (1957-61), who was elected chairman of the executive committee.