OBIT: Daniel WILLARD, 1942, of interest in Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

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DANIEL WILLARD

Daniel Willard B & O 81-Year-Old Executive Dies
Started Career on Railroads As Track Laborer 62 Years Ago

  Daniel Willard, for three decades president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 
died Monday, July 6, in Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore, after a short 
illness.  He was 81.
  The veteran railroad executive who relinquished his post last year to Western 
Union's Roy Barton White and became the railroad's first board chairman, had the 
longest tenure of any president in B. & O.'s 115-year history.
  In failing health recently, Willard had been seriously ill for nearly six 
weeks.
  Death was attributed to a heart condition which had its inception about five 
years ago.
  He was born January 28, 1861, on a North Hartland, Vt., farm, and began his 
railroading career there as a track laborer for the Central Vermont Railroad.
  He is survived by his widow, his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Daniel Willard, Jr., 
and four grandchildren.  Both of Willard's sons are dead.  Harold, the older, 
died during the influenza epidemic of the first World War.  Daniel Jr., who was 
assistant general counsel of the B. & O., died in May, 1940.
  "Uncle Dan," as he was known throughout the Baltimore & Ohio system, remained 
active in the railroad's affairs until six weeks ago.
  Throughout his 62 years of railroading, Willard retained a keen insight into 
the problems of the worker and was influential in shaping Federal legislation 
affecting railroads.
  The last Federal measure in which he was vitally concerned was the Chandler 
bill, providing a corporation could, with court approval, make effective a 
reorganization plan despite minority objection if it obtained consent from a 
certain proportion of creditors.
  The bill, passed unanimously July 27, 1939, saved the B. & O. from 
receivership.
  Willard, sometimes accused of being unduly pro-labor, often was disappointed 
at the course of action labor took.  However, he insisted the smooth course of 
the Chandler bill was largely the result of the strong support it received from 
railroad labor organizations.

Meyersdale Republican, July 9, 1942