Homespun, poker-playing Frank Chambless Rand, who expanded a horse & buggy shoe-selling route into the biggest U.S. shoe company, had a horror of nepotism. "I've learned in my lifetime," he liked to say, "that friendship is no basis for business, but business is an excellent basis for lasting friendship." Thus when Frank Rand died at 73 last December, his job as board chairman of St. Louis' International Shoe Co. was filled by no relative but by President Byron A. Gray, a former clerk.
Last week, nobody cried "nepotism" when Edgar Eugene Rand, 44,...
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