Arthur B. Goetze

Arthur Burton Goetze (June 8, 1901 – March 9, 1959) was an American electrical engineer and business executive who served as president of Western Electric, the manufacturing and supply company of the Bell System, from September 1956 until his death in March 1959. He entered the company as a 16-year-old draftsman after high school and advanced through engineering, cost control, sales, personnel, manufacturing and finance assignments before becoming its chief executive.

As president, Goetze headed Western Electric during an expansion of telephone-equipment production and continued defense work that included the Nike Hercules, the early Nike Zeus anti-ballistic-missile program, the SAGE air-defense system and operation of Sandia Laboratory.

Early life and education

Goetze was born in Chicago on June 8, 1901. He graduated from high school in 1917 and immediately joined Western Electric's Hawthorne Works in the Chicago area as a draftsman. While employed, he studied electrical engineering in evening classes at the Armour Institute of Technology, which later became part of the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Career

Western Electric and Bell operating companies

At Western Electric, Goetze held early assignments in engineering and cost control before moving into the company's telephone-sales organization. In 1928 he transferred to New York as assistant distribution engineer in the telephone sales division. He became personnel assistant to the division's general manager in 1937 and personnel director of Western Electric in March 1942.

In 1948 Goetze was appointed acting works manager for the company's plants at Tonawanda, New York, its 42nd Street shops in New York City, and its electronics shops in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Goetze moved from manufacturing management to the Bell operating companies in 1949, when he became a vice president responsible for personnel at the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Companies. He returned to Western Electric in 1952 as a vice president and manager of its Kearny Works in New Jersey and subsequently served as vice president for manufacturing in the eastern area. On May 1, 1956, he returned to the manufacturing portfolio, succeeding the retiring H. C. Beal as vice president–manufacturing. In June 1956 he also joined the board of Bell Telephone Laboratories.

President of Western Electric

In September 1956 Goetze was elected president of Western Electric, succeeding Frederick Kappel, who had become president of American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Goetze remained a Western Electric director and a Bell Laboratories director.

During his presidency, Western Electric continued building capacity outside its older Hawthorne, Kearny and Point Breeze plants. The Omaha Works began operations in 1958 as a major producer of cable and telephone apparatus; company histories identify Goetze as president during its construction. The company also offered employees a tuition-refund program covering study at accredited colleges and universities, a policy Goetze publicly announced in late 1956.

Western Electric's 1958 annual report, issued shortly before Goetze's death, recorded sales of approximately $2.174 billion, of which about $1.528 billion was to Bell System companies and $579 million was principally for government defense work. In discussing the results, Goetze emphasized the cost of replacing aging plants and machinery at contemporary prices and the pressure that this placed on returns from investment.

Goetze also appeared at plant and civic ceremonies. In 1957 he attended a Carnegie Hero Fund award presentation in North Carolina, and in 1958 he was made an honorary Kiowa chief during a visit to Oklahoma.

A later management textbook cited an internally circulated Western Electric typescript by him, Motivating and Developing the Top Management Team, in which he discussed executive development and succession.

Honors

Illinois Institute of Technology's archival register lists Goetze as the speaker or honorary-degree recipient at its January 1957 commencement. Thiel College awarded an honorary degree to Goetze in 1958.

Personal life and death

Goetze was married and had two children. At his death he also had five grandchildren.

On March 9, 1959, Goetze suffered a heart attack while seeking medical attention in Western Electric's Manhattan offices and died at age 57. He was buried at Saint Stephen's Episcopal Cemetery in Millburn, New Jersey. On March 17, Western Electric's board elected H. I. Romnes to succeed him as president.