PERSONNEL: Second Man

In the 1911 class, yearbook of Alabama Polytechnic Institute (Auburn) the picture of Hal Stephens Dumas (a graduate at 18) appeared with the caption: “He will be president of the American Telephone & Telegraph Co.” Last week Hal Dumas, 58, became the next best thing. He was made executive vice president of the $11.5 billion company, one notch below President Cleo F. Craig (TIME, July 9).

The yearbook prophet had a little advance information: Electrical Engineer Dumas was already signed up to work for A. T. & T.’s Southern Bell. Starting as a $50-a-month trainee, Dumas rose through the traffic department, claims to know “personally 90% of the 54,000 people who work for Southern Bell.” One of those he met was Cleo Craig, for three years A. T. & T.’s long-lines boss in Atlanta.

Dumas became operating vice president of Southern Bell in 1938 and president in 1943 (last year’s salary: $75,000). Go-getter Dumas is also an enthusiastic local do-gooder, which is what Bell likes its executives to be. Said one friend: “Hal is just naturally a boy scout—as well as a good businessman.”

Under President Dumas, Southern Bell expanded faster than any other A. T. & T. unit. Since the war it has put $100 million into new rural lines; its revenues have doubled (to $286 million), its telephones increased from 1.7 million to 3.5 million. When Dumas moves into A. T. & T.’s No. 2 spot in New York (estimated salary: $115,000 a year), he will bring with him two reminders of the South. One is the Confederate flag that he keeps in his Atlanta office. The other is his drawl. Says he: “I don’t know whether they will understand my rice-water talk up in New York. I talk like I have grits in my mouth.”