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ersonal Sketches of Marine Men John D. Reilly, Elected President, Todd Shipyards Corp. By Ben K. Price Y VIRTUE of his recent appointment as president of the Todd Shipyards Corp., 25 Broadway, New York city, John D. Reilly at 43 becomes one of the young- est major executives in the shipbuilding and ship repair industry and by training, to say nothing of actual achievement, he should prove one of its ablest. For al- most 25 years Mr. Reilly had -been in close association with the late William H. Todd, whom he succeeds, and no man in ship building could have thus been more fav- ored, and, it might well be added, no man could have been one whit more deserving. For witness Mr. Reilly’s rapid rise from an office sec- retary through various stages to director and executive vice president and finally to the head of possibly the largest organization of its kind in the world, the choice of Mr. Todd before he died, of the members of the Todd fam- ily who are large stockholders, and the unanimous choice of the directors of the corporation. This association with Mr. Todd gave Mr. Reilly not only a thorough grasp of the purely managerial prob- lems of the corporation, but carried him into the realm of finance and at the same time provided him with the benefit of an early practical mechanical training which the present incumbent never had. Mr. Reilly was born Aug. 1, 1888, in Yonkers, N. Y., where he has always resided. Graduating from a local high school and spending one year in a bank, he became secretary to J. N. Robins, founder of the company which then bore his name and which later became the nucleus of the amalgamation which later became the Todd Ship- yards Corp. This was in 1907, his first contact with the shipbuilding industry and a contact which he has constantly maintained through his affiliation with this one organization. It was two years later, 1909, that he, upon the re- tirement of Mr. Robins, became directly associated with Mr. Todd. Following a meteoric rise, Mr. Todd just became president—president at the age of 45, inciden- tally—and Mr. Reilly was given a position similar to the one he held with Mr. Robins. His association came in time to witness one of the most romantic developments in his branch of the ship- EGINNING. his connection with the ship repair industry 25 years ago, at the age of 18, he has been actively associated with it ever since. N AN unusually close contact for many years with the late William H. Todd his qualities of real leadership were repeatedly demonstrated. IS unanimous election as president is due to confidence in his integ- rity, ‘ability and thoroughly grounded knowledge of the company’s affairs. ping industry, and possibly one of its most dramatic in- stances, namely, in 1915, when Mr. Todd, taking with him 100 of his workers, blocked the sale of the company to foreign interests and ‘acquired control. The com- pany in 1911 had been reorganized as the Robins Dry Dock & Repair Co., with the Clyde interests in control and they had later offered the property to an English buyer for $7,000,000. It was then that Mr. Todd, tak- ing with him his 100 workers, formed the William H. Todd Corp. and developed a purchase plan, calling for the payment of the same amount on long installments, a proposal that was finally accepted, with the property involved the largest of its kind around New York. Business flourished and the following year, 1916, the Todd Shipyards Corp. was formed to take over the Tiet- jen & Lang Dry Dock, Hoboken, N. J.; the Seattle Con- struction & Dry Dock Co., Seattle, Wash., and the Quin- tard Iron Works, N. Y. This turnover paid each of the 100 partners a substantial cash dividend and 11% times his holding of stock in the old company. Mr. Reilly, now assistant to the president, was to see much further expansion, not only in point of growth of existing properties, but in the acquisition and formation of additional plants, including the Todd Dry Dock En- gineering & Repair Corp., Brooklyn; Todd Engineering Dry Dock & Repair Co. Inc., New Orleans; Todd Ship- building & Dry Dock Co, Inc., Mobile, Ala.; Todd Dry Docks Inc., Seattle, Wash.; and the Todd Oil Burners Ltd., .London, England. In all of these enterprises, Mr. Reilly was destined to take a constantly increasing responsibility. In 1920 he became a director of the Todd Shipyards Corp. and in 1929 a vice president of the subsidiary companies at Seattle, Wash., Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans. The new president is pleasant, approachable, with the ruddy face and blue eyes so characteristic of the race of his ancestors; he is of average height and of rugged build. He is a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, the Maritime Exchange of the Port of New York and the American committee of Lloyd’s, this latter being a relatively new affiliation. 42 MARINE REvIEw—July, 1932