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sb"My father," says K. C. Li Jr., 40. chairman of New York s Wah Chang (Great Development) Corp., "wanted to make Chinese activity in the U.S. mean more than the laundry and the restaurant." Li Sr., a British-educated mining engineer who died early this year, built Wah Chang (1960 sales: $35 million) into a major free-world producer of tungsten. Now K. C. Jr., a Swarthmore graduate who flew with General Chennault's Fourteenth Air Force, is out to enhance his company's reputation by intensifying research into atom-age metals. The new emphasis has already produced an important breakthrough in fabrication of superconductors i.e., metals which when chilled to absolute zero lose their resistance to electricity. Wah Chang labs are now making colum-bium-zirconium alloy wire that scientists believe can be used to utilize the energy released by controlled nuclear fission.

sbTo put some snap back into sagging Seiberling Rubber Co., Chairman James P. Seiberling, 63, son of the founder, handed the presidency and chief executive title to Executive Vice President Harry Paul Schrank, 58. Schrank's promotion stilled, at least momentarily, the feud between the Seiberling clan and Toledo Industrialist Edward Lamb, who lost an all-out proxy war in 1956 but now holds five seats on the isman board. The move, crowed Lamb, has "my enthusiastic support." Outspoken Harry Schrank, respected by competitors for his gift for spotting industry trends, plans to push diversification in chemicals and plastics.

sbEver since California-based Safeway Stores Inc. invaded the East Coast in the early 19405, its 164 New York City area supermarkets have been consistent money losers. Last week Chairman Robert Magowan, 57, sold off the New York stores for an estimated $25 million to First National Stores Inc. The sale was part of Magowan's tough-minded drive to streamline Safeway, which with 2,216 stores is the nation's second largest (after A. & P.) retail food chain. Since he took command at Safeway in 1955, Magowan has sharply pared headquarters staff, ruthlessly closed obsolete stores, and raised profits from .7-c- on the sales dollar to 1.3-c-. With the proceeds of the New York sale, he plans to expand in the West, "where growth is assured."

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