Business: Home Free

From courtroom to boardroom

Two fellows who just missed getting jobs making license plates will soon be back behind the wheel of the world's largest truck and trailer producer. Robert D. Rowan, 57, former president and chief executive of Detroit's Fruehauf Corp., and William E. Grace, 70, the former chairman, were convicted in 1975 of defrauding the Government of $12.3 million in excise taxes. Though both are stitt on probation, next month Rowan will return to his $440,000-a-year job and Grace will become chairman of Fruehauf s executive committee.

A U.S. federal court in Detroit had ruled that from 1956 to 1965 Rowan and Grace overstated the company's excise tax credits and understated revenues. The men were originally sentenced to six months in prison, but later got reduced penalties. They were placed on two years' probation and ordered to do full-time community service work until early May. Last week the Fruehauf board voted that when those terms are up the two officers, who have reputations as big profitmakers, may return to the company from their unpaid leaves.