(5 of 5)
Standing now at the top of his profession, in which, curiously enough, he holds no degree, William Francis Gibbs is a profound skeptic. Young Son Francis is an enthusiastic horseman, but Father Gibbs hates the sight of horseflesh. Said a member of his family: "He always suspects they're ready to bite him." In the same way he is leary of success. When a man begins to think of himself as successful, according to the Gibbsian philosophy, "he gets to thinking he is so goddam bright that it just paralyzes him."
William Francis also shies from publicity. He thinks that the war-production show is being run too much by junior executives while seniors spend the major part of their time making speeches, holding interviews, instead of tending to their knitting. He thinks publicity is treacherous. He does not want to get bitten.
William Francis, 56, long and stringy, contrives to look more like an undertaker than a real one. But his friends recognize this as a mannerism which they suspect is partly affectation. It includes wearing shiny, patched clothes and shocking dinner parties with sardonic comments. Married to Manhattan Socialite Vera Cravath Larkin, daughter of the late, great lawyer Paul Cravath, he avoids society, but pops into it every once in a while, throws himself into a chair like an old rug, often turns out to be the lion of the party.
But there is no affectation about his passion for his job. Three years ago, at the launching of the America, which he designed for the U.S. Lines, officials looked everywhere among the gathered celebrities for William Francis. He had vanished. They finally spotted him. Bored by speechmaking, he was perched like a bald eagle at the top cf a scaffolding to get a better view of his ship when she hit the water.
* General Electric, Westinghouse, Babcock & Wilcox, Foster Wheeler, De Laval Steam Turbine.