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Erie, Pa.,
Thursday, October 5, 1939.
I expected that the event of today would be the presence of Mr. Stout in our midst and my introduction of him, etc. to the AIEE – ASME. But something happened today to put that completely in the shade.

I went into Whitey's office about whether the 4th Cummins locomotive was available and he promptly put in a phone call to Letzinger. While waiting for the call, we sat there and suddenly Whitey said, "Forie, what are your ambitions with regard to this Department?" It was so out of a clear sky I could scarcely believe it but I knew what was coming – or thought I did, and I was correct. He said he had to get someone to work into Henry Guy's job and also take over the "running of the Dept." that Cash had done, only some of it, the very routine work, would be done by Art Parker and when Art goes, by a clerk. Cash's ^[[former]] work would be handling the "personnel" principally. And as Henry's job now is only a "quarter time job," it would mean a much larger job than Henry has, that is, more general management work assisting Whitey. It would be the 3rd biggest job in the Dept. after Henry retires in a couple of years or maybe three depending upon "the market." In other words, Whitey practically offered me the line on the Asst. Managership when Henry retires. For the time being, I'd be "Executive Assistant" or something of that nature. He said he wanted to make the move in two or three months and wanted me to think it over carefully and spend time with Henry finding out just what his "clandestine work" consists of, and then make a decision. He intimated he had considered me also for a successor to Cash in the engineering end. Lynch