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Show Dr, Walther Mathesius To Retire As President of Geneva Steel Company on December 1 Announcement last week that Dr. Walter Mathesius, president pres-ident of Geneva Steel Company since its organization in 1943 will retire December 1, was taken by civic labor and club organizations of Utah County with a feeling that Central Utah is losing a great friend and booster. Not only is Dr. Mathesisus a booster for industrial expan- assignment when U. S. Steel Corp. built the plant for the government gov-ernment was because of his extraordinary ex-traordinary faith and interest in the project. A native of Hoerde, Germany, Dr. Mathesius had a long family background in the steel industry in that country. His father wrote the standard German treatise upon steel making. Coming to America in 1911 he started his steel career in this country as a metallurgist in the research laboratory of the American Steel and Wire Co., Worcester, Mass. Thereafter he moved steadily upward through various subsidiaries subsid-iaries of the corporation and in 1938, when U. S. Steel Corporation Corpora-tion of Delaware was formed to coordinate the management of the major manufacturing facilities facili-ties of the corporation, he was appointed vice-president of operations oper-ations and elected a director and member of the executive commi-tee. sion in Utah, but is in a quiet way, one of its most enthusiastic and moving lights in the state's cultural maturity. Last spring he was honored by Brigham Young University with an . honorary doctor's degree along with President David O. McKay and President Joseph Fielding Smith. It is reported that Dr. Mathesius Mathes-ius will move to Chicago where he will open offices as a consulting con-sulting engineer. He will retain a connection with United States Steel in a consulting capacity through 1952. Alden G. Roach, now president of Columbia and Consolidated Western Steel Corp., has been named president of the new Columbia-Geneva division of U. S. Steel. Loren J. Westhaver, now vice-president vice-president and manager of operations opera-tions of Geneva Steel Co., has been named vice-president of the Columbia-Geneva Division and manager of Utah operations. Although a resident of this state only since 1943, Dr. Mathe- RETIRES President, Director When Geneva Steel Co. was organized in 1943 as a subsidiary to operate the Utah plant for the government, he became president presi-dent and director of that firm. But prior to taking on the job of operating the plant, he took an active part in planning and constructing it. With the purchase of the plant by U. S. Steel in 1946, Dr. Mathesius Mathe-sius continued as president, and began putting more and more of his ideas into effect. The present status of the plant and Dr. Mathesius' standing in the state are the best measures of the success of those ideas. si Talented Wife In addition to operating one of the state's most important industries in-dustries he has taken an active pa'-t in civic and cultural activities. activi-ties. He was one of the moving spirits and chairman of the Bright Brig-ht m Young University - Provo Chamber of Commerce Community Commun-ity industry Conference, and has spent much time "selling" his idea of integrating industry with traditional agricultural society. His wife, the former Ebba Af Ekstrcn of Sweden, Is an accomplished accom-plished musician, and both are deeply interested in community cultural affairs. Dr. Mathesius Is a member of leading technical societies, including in-cluding the American Iron nad Steel Institute, The American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Metal-lurgical Engineers, and the American Am-erican Society for Metals. He has written many technical papers for industrial and scientific publications. pub-lications. Locally, he is first vice-president and a director of the Utah Manufacturers Assn., and a member of the Salt Lake City ' Chamber of Commerce, the Alta club and the Salt Lake Country club. UTAH FRIEND Dr. Walther.. Mathesius will make home in Chicago. sius was interested in its steel industry potentialities long before be-fore he came here. And more than any other individual he can be termed the "father" of the Geneva plant. Mathesius Believed in Future He believed in the industrial future of the west and he was convinced that a basic steel industry in-dustry in Utah would be a success suc-cess when many well-informed people regarded the big pjant as just another "white elephant" of wartime expansion. Dr. Mathesius came to his Geneva assignment with a determination, de-termination, not only to make it a successful steel producing facility, fac-ility, but to fit it into the established estab-lished economy of the area so that it would complement rather than disrupt what was already in the area. As wartime and postwar ope:-tor ope:-tor of the plant for U. S. Steel Corp., he demonstrated that he not only was a top-ranking steel industry technician, but an able executive, public relations expert and sociologist as well. Faith in Project One reason he drew the Utah |