The Texas Touch

When the Chrysler Corp. delegated Lester Lum Colbert to negotiate a new wage agreement with the U.A.W.-C.I.O. last August, Detroit's automen gossiped that he was being groomed for the presidency (TIME, Sept. 4). Last week, Chrysler directors made it official. President K. T. Keller, nudging the retirement age of 65 and busy three days a week with his new job as director of the Defense Department's guided missile program, moved up to board chairman—a post vacant since Walter P. Chrysler's death in 1940. Into the presidency went "Tex" Colbert, 45, boss of Chrysler's Dodge division.

Colbert, born in Oakwood, Texas...

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