Evening star., 1932-05-25
AMHERST SELECTS
BUSINESS LEADER
Stanley King Is Contrast to
Staid Scholars Who
Preceded Him.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch TO Inc Star.
AMHERST. Mass, May 25 (N.A,NA)
TO sit in the chair occupied by six
herst trustees have chosen as the new
college president a retired Boston shoe
manufacturer who at the age of 48 has
been looking around for something else
to do.
Stanley King is a type as strange to
the presidency of Amherst as he was
to the men who ran across him in his
short but striking business career.
A superbrilliant student at Amherst
and Harvard Law School. he was rec
commended by Justice BranCeiS to a
shoe manufacturing friend who wanted
an assistant In almost no time he was
a director of the largest shoe manu-
featuring concern in the country.
Next he flashes before the country as
the 34-year-old man Secretary of War
Baker selected to handle labor disputes
during the war, and his method of
whipping men and concerns into line
was startling The War Department
took over one big Massachusetts factory
when the owner refused to meet labor
demands which had been approved by
Mr. Bakers War Labor Board.
The mutual admiration of Newton D.
Baker and Stanley King has continued
to this day Political observers have
thought that If the Baker-for- President
campaign opens up, Mr.. King will be
the keyman in New England.
Heads Employment Body.
In Massachusetts, the most recent
public glimpse of the newly elected
Amherst president is as Gov. Ely's
chairman of the Special Commission on
Sterilization of Employment. Several
State instead Of municipal regulation
of private employment offices, extern
sion of public employment Offices and
flve-year S50,000,000 plan OF public
works
Those brief glimpses show how far
from academic circles comes this new
choice for presidency of a New England
college which has clung to the classical
tradition. classical college now has
president whose reputation has been
that of high-powered executive
But Stanley Kings main interests
have always been people and books,
and, curiously enough perhaps, poetry.
To those who would trace the deter
mining influences in this mans life
mention should be made Of the late
garded by many observers as one of
Mr.. Morrow's able lieutenants in hand
ling the situation which led to the dis
miSsal Of Alexander Meiklejohn at Am
herst, and Mr.. Morrow and Mr.. King
were in frequent contact in the years
that followed.
Stanley King was born May II, 1888.
the son Of Henry A. King, graduate
of Amherst in the class of 1873 and
former Judge of the Superior Court
He was graduated from Springfield
High School with top rank, and en-
tered the class of 1904 of Amherst Col
lege, but was graduated with the class
Of 1903, having completed the four
year course in three years with the
rank of summa cum laude.
Served as Bakers Aide.
From 1906 to 1917 he was with the
w. H. McElWain Co. of Boston, shoe
manufacturers, living abroad from 1914
to 1916. In 1917 he was in Washing
ton as a member of the Committee on
Supplies, Council of Defense. Later he
became special assistant to Secretary
Baker and afterward private secretary
to Mr.. Baker.
He retired in 1919 and became a
member of President Wilson's Indus
trial Conference Board and secretary of
the board. With President Hoover and
Owen D. Young he prepared the reports
of this board.
In 1920 he returned to the w. H.
McElwain Co.. and on the sale of this
company to the International Shoe Co.
in 1921 he became Eastern manager of
the International, with 5000 men under
him.
He retired in April. 1927, and since
that time has devoted himself largely
to Amherst College and other public
activities. At present he is chairman
of the Massachusetts, Special Commits
sion on Sterilization of Employment
under appointment by Gov. Ely.
Retirement gave Mr.. King ample op-
portunity for world travel. With Mrs.
King he spent year in Europe, went
from Cairo to Capetown, through Gen.
down to the Dutch East Indies.
Also since his retirement Mr. King
has been able to give more time to
Summer place. Four years ago he pur-
chased place at Chilmark. on Marthas
Vineyard Island, and he spends about
five months of every year there It is
a spacious place Of 1875 acres, known as
Salt Meadows. and Mr.. King is pleas
antly known to neighbors as THE
Duke"
Wife Likes to Garden.
He has been going to the island since
1899. While there Mrs. King works in
her flower garden, being, as her hus-
band puts it, working gardener" I"
while he spends a great deal of time in
the woods, clearing out and cutting new
trails.
He doesn't fish, sail, play golf or
tennis, but he does swim, and he used
to ski in the Winter. For IS years, he
laughingly expresses it, he has followed
policy of not taking regular exercise
He took up this policy when he was
graduated from law school, and he has
not yet laid it down. He does get a
considerable amount of exercise, but it
is all incidental.
President-elect King doesn't intend
to say much about his education
theories. either educational theories in
general or pertaining to Amherst in
particular. until his Inauguration which