Word: topflighters
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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William Orville Douglas, 58, appointed by F.D.R. in 1939. Born in Minnesota, raised in Yakima, Wash., sheep-herded eastward to work his way through Columbia Law School with topflight record. Practiced in Wall Street, taught briefly at Columbia, brilliantly at Yale. A born rebel, became chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission in 1937, thereupon unleashed, in his own word, "sulphurous" attack on Wall Street. Although he had never been a judge, Roosevelt appointed him to the court on the retirement of Louis Brandeis. On the bench, pencil behind ear, hair awry, Presbyterian Douglas became a dauntless proponent of labor, civil...
...helpers. One was a socially topflight admirer, dashing Civil War Major General E. Burd Grubb, a West Pointer with an inherited business. He sent her violets daily from his hothouses but never (he had a strict moral code) asked her aboard his transatlantic yacht. The second was a smooth operator known as "P'ison Jim" Seymour. His diabolical advice to Harriet: "Let the men fool around with mines and railroads. See what you can take out of their wives...
...legalized the re-election of Presidents for his own benefit, gave the state power to "intervene in the economy." He deluged the country with billboard propaganda: "Peron Fulfills, Evita Dignifies." With malicious glee he seized Buenos Aires' La Prensa, long famed as one of the world's topflight newspapers, turned it into a mouthpiece for the C.G.T. And with engaging buffoonery, he joked at his own career: "As the man who fell from the skyscraper said upon passing the third floor, so far I'm doing fine...
...memorial will be constructed of white translucent marble, so that when the pavilion is lighted inside at night the floor of the plaza will glow in the dark. The jury, including such topflight architects as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Gordon Bunshaft, Joseé Luis Sert and Pier Luigi Nervi, was enthusiastic about Knight's design. Said Mies: "It is a noble project and will be a noble memorial...
...Bootstraps. Rockefeller agreed, stipulating that the commission remain nonpolitical. Then, ignoring legislative recommendations that an $8,000-a-year man be hired to administer the program, he went out and hired two topflight members of the Baltimore Association of Commerce. William Rock. 52, and William Ewald, 34-for $20,000 and $12,000, respectively. By the time he had gathered the eleven members of his staff, the state appropriation of $127,500 had already been spent. Rockefeller asked a newly formed Arkansas Industrialization Panel of 100 men to kick in $100 each, started things rolling with a $5,000 contribution...