for a series of business meetings,” recalled Richardson.“Sitting next to you in the car, he was the easiest guy in theworld to talk to. If you worked for him, Malcom would talkyour ear off about anything and everything business-related,”Richardson said.“He took an exactly opposite tack — very reclusive — whenit came to the media. Malcom would say, ‘when you talk to reporters,you get misquoted and nothing good comes from it.’ Hehad a lifetime aversion to the press,” Richardson explained.“Good people lift you up, bad peoplelift you out,” Johns remembers McLeansaying on a number of occasions.“He had a vision of doing somethingthat hadn’t been done before. His vision of,and commitment to, containerization wasas clear as a bell to him,” Johns said.“He was personally compelling in aquiet way. He wasn’t one of those guyswho work you over until you say, ‘O.K.,I surrender — you’ve got it right.’“That wasn’t Malcom’s way. He justwent through his ideas — and was open todiscussing them — until you were confidenthe knew which fork in the road to take.That’s a very different, and more abiding,kind of persuasion,” Johns said.“He was a mentor for many people,including me,” Johns added.“Malcom used certain people in thecompany as sounding boards,” Cushingsaid. “He was a fountain of new ideas. Hewould call you at any hour of the day or nightto bounce new thoughts off of you.“He wanted people who would challengehim. And if you did — maybe reallyknocked down one of his ideas — he’dlisten politely and then argue civilly withyou. He wouldn’t accept what you saidthen, but if it turned out you were right,he’d come back in a week and say asmuch,” Cushing explained. “If you werewrong, he never held that against you.He had no pride of authorship, or ego as you sometimes findit in business.”“Miss Clara,” as Sea-Land’s people called her, was thecompany enforcer.“She was an enormously influential person,” Johns said.“When Miss Clara said something, you moved right smartly.You didn’t ask why, or whether she was correct or not, you didit — pronto.”“Malcom wasn’t a big one for running company routines,and she was the complete opposite,” Cushing said. “Clara wasan orderly, effective administrator. He relied on her to fill thatrole for him. She was his ‘right hand man’ in many respects,as well as being his touch with reality.”“Clara was the conscience of the company,” Richardson said.“She was responsible for setting personnel policy.”For example, she insisted “on good grooming — haircuts andsuch — no coffee at your desk, clearing your workspace at theend of each day. Employees had 15 minutes a day for personal18 AMERICAN SHIPPER: APRIL 2006“He had a vision of doingsomething that hadn’t beendone before. His visionof, and commitment to,containerization was asclear as a bell to him.”matters,” he noted.“She would abhor today’s notion of dress-down ‘casual days’ ina business context, believing that anything ‘casual’ would lead toa lack of concentration and efficiency,” Richardson chuckled.When, on occasion, McLean wanted to move at a faster pacethan Clara thought wise, she reined even him in. Now 94, shelives in retirement near North Carolina’s noted Pinehurst golfcourse, about 100 miles from Winston Salem. “Miss Clara”became very wealthy in her own right after a lifetime of prudentinvestments.McLean also relied on two brothers. Jim,who took over Waterman when McLeandivested himself, “was a very efficientexecutive in his own right,” Johns said.Another brother, Bill McLean, “ran abusiness Malcom owned in Tampa calledGulf Florida Terminals. I worked for Billyfor a while — he was a very solid guy,”Johns said.One unsung member of McLean’s familysupport group was his first wife, Margaret.“She was a wonderful lady with more classthan you can imagine. She never raisedher voice or expressed opinions aboutMalcom’s business in public, but she was arock-solid person,” Johns said. “MargaretMcLean doesn’t get enough credit today.I was around them enough to know whatshe meant to him.”Malcom and Margaret had three children,Nancy, Trisha and Malcom Jr. AfterMargaret’s death, McLean remarried. Hiswidow, Irena, survives him.There was never any question of who wasSea-Land’s chief catalyst. “Malcom wasclearly the guy who prepared the Kool-Aidand also was the straw that stirred the drinkeveryone willingly took,” Johns said.“We were all young, and we workedround-the clock until we got done whathad to be done,” Cushing said.“We had to believe that containerizationwould work,” Johns recalled. “Otherwise, we’d been skinnedwhen we made sales pitches.”“And did it ever,” Johns said succinctly.R Kenneth Johnschairman,HampshireManagement GroupWages of hubrisThe near-idyllic morale at Sea-Land ended abruptly in 1969,when McLean sold the company to R.J. Reynolds.In the $530-million deal, McLean received $160 million personallyand remained as president of Sea-Land under a five-yearcontract that paid him $100,000 a year. His own explanationfor the sale was to allow Sea-Land to grow more quickly at lessrisk. Not everyone found that rationale to be plausible.“I really strongly disagreed with his selling Sea-Land to R.J.Reynolds. I told him so, because we had that kind of relationship.He wasn’t offended by my saying it,” Johns explained.“That sale still turns my liver over when I think about it. Tothis day, I’m not sure of why he did it. I still don’t understand
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