Distant Force: A Memoir of the Teledyne Corporation and the Man Who Created It

Dr. Roberts searched his archive of corporate documents - shareholder financieal reports, records of management and board meetings, letters, drafts of speeches, the copious notes that he personally kept during his tenure as president and later CEO, as well as his own memory - to construct this memoir. He describes the first decade of aggressive acquisitions and diversification; Henry's reasons for adding financial institutions to his highly technical mix; his controversial program of aggressive stock buy-backs; the spin-off to shareholders of certain entities which greatly broadened their flexibility in handling their investments (many of which still provide income today); and finally the difficult days of whistle blower suits, hostile takeover atttempts, and the finally friendly merger with Allegheny Steel Company.

Bob McVicker, who assisted Dr. Roberts in the production of this volume, worked in Teledyne's corporate public relations office from 1969 to 1979 where he wrote and procduced the quarterly shareholders' magazine Teledyne Report, after which he continued to write the tutorial articles for this publication on a freelance basis into the early 1990's. These stories, which were intended to give the non-technical shareholder an understanding of the company's sometimes arcane technologies, are available on the CD enclosed with this volume.