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End Runs. While an old Thompson Products hand, J. D. (Dave) Wright, 62, serves as TRW's chairman and chief executive, energetic, visionary Si Ramo, 54, remains its guiding spirit (Wooldridge, his onetime partner, is now semiretired and engaged in private research, has written two technical books). Ramo is particularly enthusiastic about the company's growing work in "civil systems," the application of computerized methods to such problems as urban renewal and air pollution. Above all, Ramo believes in being highly selective in the choice of markets. In spacecraft propulsion, for example, TRW makes only small engines. In aviation, it concentrates on jet-engine parts. Instead of bucking competition across the board, confided Ramo at his company's Vermont hideaway, "we have always gone for the end runs."