∙ During his 37-year rise from traveling geologist for Aluminum Co. of America, scholarly Lawrence Litchfield Jr., 61, learned to eat monkey meat and acquired a command of the Dutch Guiana pidgin known as Takki-Takki. But since he was named Alcoa's president two years ago, Litchfield's studies have been less exotic: under the tutelage of Chairman Frank Magee, 66, he has been mastering the art of managing a major corporation under tough competitive pressure. Last week, Magee turned over to Annapolis Graduate Litchfield ('20) the duties of chief executive of the world's biggest (1961 sales: $853 million) aluminum producer.
∙ Another Annapolis man moved into the top echelon of U.S. industry as soft-spoken President John R. Rhamstine, 60, took over from Chairman William Brady, 66, as chief executive of Corn Products Co., which in 1961 rang up sales of $750 million. Rhamstine (rhymes with tramline), a onetime career Marine, went to work for a Chicago management consultant in 1929, so impressed clients at Corn Products that they hired him away. Experienced in both manufacturing and finance, he is determined to expand his company's line, which already ranges far beyond corn to such things as Shinola shoe polish and Knorr's dehydrated soups.
∙ For Wall Street it was a story with all the appeal of Ted Williams' homer his last time at bat. As president of prestigious First Boston Corp., Investment Banker James Coggeshall Jr. one day last week managed the biggest stock sale of the year—the Ford Foundation's offering of 2,250,000 Ford Motor Co. shares. The $218 million deal went so smoothly that Ford stock actually rose a point to 984:. That taken care of, 65-year-old "Jim Cogg" returned to his office, wrote out the letter of resignation that ended his 42-year investment career, and headed off to retirement.