¶ Herman C. (for Christian) Nolen, 54, was elected president of McKesson & Robbins. Inc., world’s largest wholesaler of drugs and liquors (Martin’s V.V.O., Highland Queen), to succeed George Van Gorder, 60, who remains board chairman and chief executive. Nolen, son of a Muskegon, Mich, physician, was a Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Wisconsin (class of ’22), worked his way up to production superintendent of Continental Motors Corp., then left business to take a Ph.D. in 1937 at Ohio State University. His doctoral thesis (Study of Chain Store Merchandising Methods and Selling) established him as a drug merchandising authority. Nolen stayed on to teach at O.S.U., rose to head the university’s marketing department before McKesson & Robbins hired him nine years ago as vice president. A World War II colonel, he served on General Eisenhower’s staff from D-day in Normandy to V-E day. ¶ Lewis Gruber, 60, was named the fourth president in four years for P. Lorillard Co. (Old Gold, Kent). His predecessor, William J. Halley, 58, moved down to head the finance committee. A native New Yorker, Gruber got a law degree from Tennessee’s Cumberland University (’14), joined Lorillard in 1922 as a salesman. The executive shakeup. which also brought in a new advertising director, gives more company control to sales experts, less to financial and advertising advisers. Lorillard sales have dropped steadily since 1953; this year’s first-quarter sales of $47 million were off $10 million from the same 1955 period.