Last summer the citizens of Kenosha, Wis., gave Charles Williams Nash a public celebration in honor of the 20th anniversary of his removal from Detroit. A farmer until he was 28, a buggy maker in his 40’s, the robust, hard-headed motorman stepped down from the presidency of General Motors Corp. at 52 to make his own car under his own name. In the two decades since he moved to Kenosha, his Nash Motors Co. has made more than 1,100,000 cars, paid more than $110,000,000 in dividends.
Four years ago, hoping to spend less time at his old pine desk in his Kenosha office, more time in his Lakeside mansion, Motorman Nash retired to the chairmanship of his rich little company, naming his general manager as president and presumptive successor. Not long ago, however, Mr. Nash regretfully announced President Earl Hansen McCarty’s resignation. At 72 thrifty Mr. Nash again had the job of finding an eventual chief executive. Last week he found his man — George Walter Mason, 45, president-chairman of Detroit’s Kelvinator Corp.
Iceman Mason is no novice at motor making. After graduating from the University of Michigan as a business-trained engineer (Class of 1913), he went into Studebaker’s manufacturing division, then switched to Dodge. After the War he did a turn in a Manhattan bank, leaving to help Walter P. Chrysler with the metamorphosis of old Maxwell Motor into Chrysler Corp. For four years he was Chrysler’s works manager. Then restless Mr. Mason quit the motor industry for the second time, entering Kelvinator at the top after a brief term as president for another refrigerator maker.
For Nash this high-powered Detroiter was a highly logical choice. More than two-thirds of its $35,000,000 worth of assets are in banks or Government bonds. Its name is potent. But Nash lost money from 1933 through 1935, is not making much money now. Its sales organization, the key to modern motor profit, needs strengthening, and sales organization is one of Mr. Mason’s long suits. Kelvinator has 10,000 dealers, Nash only 1,600.
Only one thing was wrong with this picture: George Mason did not want to leave Kelvinator. Why not, said Mr. Nash, bring Kelvinator with him? General Motors has Frigidaire, Borg-Warner has Norge, Chrysler, if not in refrigerators, is in air conditioning. So last week—after a flat denial from old Mr. Nash that a merger was in the making—the deal was announced. Subject to stockholder approval on both sides, each share of Kelvinator will be exchanged for 1⅜ shares of Nash. Then Nash will change its name to Nash-Kelvinator Corp. with Mr. Nash as chairman, Mr. Mason as president, combined assets of $54,000,000.
Named for Lord Kelvin, famed British physicist, Kelvinator was founded in 1914 in a second-story shop in Detroit. It grew by merger and sales expansion until today it sells at least one out of every five U. S. electric refrigerators.* Prompted by a seasonal sales curve and notoriously stiff competition, Iceman Mason has gone in heavily for diversification. The Kelvinator line now includes coal & oil burners, gas & electric stoves, air-conditioning equipment, temperature control instruments. Kelvinator was in the black throughout Depression, made $1,199,000 in the ice year through September 1935. Its earnings for the ice year just closed have not been published but in the nine months through last June Kelvinator profits were $1,372,000.
In last week’s dickering, Kelvinator offered profits, Nash cash. Kelvinator, ready to capitalize on a possible building boom, could use cash to expand its home heating and cooking divisions. Invested there, Nash’s cash will probably earn a considerably better return than in Government bonds.
*Mechanical refrigerator sales are expected to top 2,000,000 this year, a record. Eleven years ago the figure was 75,000.
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