Chevron Chief on Fatal Flight After Yule Event in L.A.

It was a Christmas luncheon at the Downtown Club in Los Angeles that brought Chevron USA President James R. Sylla to the Southland and, ultimately, to his death.

Sylla was one of four Chevron employees who perished Monday when PSA Flight 1771 crashed and disintegrated in the Santa Lucia Mountains.

The other three, en route to San Francisco for a three-day meeting of Chevron public affairs officials from around the world, were Owen F. Murphy, 60, who was based in Los Angeles; Jocelyn G. Kempe, 56, based in Ventura, and Allen F. Swanson, 45, based in La Habra.

Rod Spackman, public affairs manager at Chevron’s El Segundo refinery, was supposed to fly up on the same plane, but he was delayed by a problem at the refinery. On Tuesday, he was still in a daze at the loss of his colleagues and at his own narrow escape.

‘Long Day’

“This is going to be a long day,” Spackman said in a telephone interview. “There but (for) the grace of God go I.”

Spackman remembered the Christmas luncheon was “an upbeat gathering.” Murphy was the host, and Sylla, the guest of honor, delivered brief remarks about the company’s operations and prospects. But most of all, “it was a time to share conversation and holiday greetings,” Spackman said.

It was Spackman’s duty to break the news to his colleagues at a reception in San Francisco on Monday night.

“He called and asked, ‘Are they there yet?’ ” recalled Larry Shushan, a Chevron spokesman based in San Francisco. “We said no. He said, ‘You should fear the worst.’ ”

Chevron was not the only California company deeply affected by Monday’s tragedy. Three managers with Pacific Telesis Group’s Pacific Bell unit also died in the crash.

Attended Meeting

Wayne Nelson and Tony Cordova, who worked in the Yellow Page division, were returning to San Francisco after a meeting with officials of the Times Mirror Press. Earl Webb, a marketing manager in Los Angeles, was going to San Francisco for a meeting.

George M. Keller, chairman and chief executive of Chevron, eulogized the four employees killed in the crash as “very good friends” and “some of the finest people I have known in my 39 years with the company.”

“We’ll all miss them terribly,” he added, noting that the four, collectively, had more than 100 years of experience with the company. Chevron also lost two key managers in a Delta L-1011 crash in Dallas two years ago.

Keller said Chevron’s board of directors will meet next Wednesday and will probably designate a successor to Sylla, who had responsibility for about 25,000 employees as head of Chevron’s domestic exploration and marketing operation.

The leading candidates are Senior Vice Presidents William Crain and Willis Price. Keller said the crash will not disrupt company operations, and observers agreed.

Wheel Turns

“The wheel continues to turn. You just put a different spoke in,” said one San Francisco petroleum industry analyst who asked not to be named.

“I don’t think people will notice even a beat in the running of the machine,” added Herbert Hart, energy analyst in San Francisco for S. G. Warburg, a London securities firm.

But the Chevron deaths will be a blow to civic organizations throughout California. Sylla was chairman of the board of trustees of Golden Gate University and was scheduled to assume the presidency of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce next month.

Murphy, Chevron’s ranking corporate representative in Los Angeles, was a board member of the California Museum Foundation, the Central City Assn. and the Los Angeles chapter of the American Red Cross, among others.

Served on Boards

Swanson also held several board memberships but was most excited about his post as chairman-elect of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce.

Time staff writer Jim Carlton in Orange County also contributed to this story.