Visionary Railroader

President Bill Clinton has groused to friends that history will never rank him among the greatest presidents because he never had to confront a major war or an economic catastrophe during his tenure. Barack Obama will have both and, with it, the chance to go down in the annals as a monumental goat or savior. And so it is, as well, with industry. As Clemson University historian H. Roger Grant writes, when the American railroad industry imploded in the '60s and '70s, Jervis Langdon Jr. was well positioned as president of the Rock Island and later the Baltimore & Ohio Railroads to play a role in national rail reorganization. Like other successful captains of industry, the challenge of fixing a broken organization trumped material gain for Langdon, as was evidenced when he joined the board of the troubled Delaware & Hudson. "As one of 'Jerv's boys' from the B&O, Bill Collins, D&H vice president for administration and strategic planning, put it: 'Jervis did not come for glory or for coin.'" Langdon's proven track record, so to speak, made him a logical choice to become lead trustee for the bankrupt Penn Central, whose presidency he took over three years later. He was instrumental as well in passing the federal Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 and in creating the quasi-public Conrail. An interesting sideline the author came up with is that Langdon was related, on his father's side, to the prominent Elmira, N.Y. family which produced Olivia "Livy" Langdon, Mark Twain's beloved wife and mother of their three children.