Lummis to Retire as Hughes, Summa Chief

William R. Lummis, who transformed the sprawling gaming and industrial empire of the late billionaire Howard Hughes into a streamlined real estate and development company, has announced his retirement as chief executive of Hughes Corp. and Summa Corp.

Lummis, 60, called upon to unscramble Hughes’ estate and place it in the hands of his heirs following the industrialist’s death in 1976, said he will retire March 31 and be replaced by Summa President and Chief Operating Officer John L. Goolsby, 47.

Lummis will remain as chairman of the privately held corporations.

“I’ve not had one boring moment in 14 years,” he said in a statement. “When Howard Hughes died, none of us who have since dealt with the estate anticipated--or could have been prepared for--the extremely complex, difficult and bizarre experience which lay ahead.”

Lummis, a first cousin of Hughes and a partner in a Houston law firm when tabbed to head the companies, said that after more than a decade of litigation over claims by different heirs, income tax liabilities and alleged wills left by the late industrialist, the companies have been reorganized and are now profitable.

Lummis said his goal when he took over the companies was to transform an “unprofitable, widely diverse business empire” that employed 20,000 people into one operation concentrating on real estate development and investment.

Over the years, Lummis sold such Hughes operations as Hughes Airwest airline and Hughes Helicopters Inc., along with five Nevada hotel-casinos bought by the reclusive billionaire when he lived in Las Vegas in the 1960s.

Lummis said the company, controlled by some 250 heirs and shareholders, now has “large, valuable assets and very little debt” and is highly profitable.

The assets include an interest in Playa Vista, a nearly 1,000-acre parcel in West Los Angeles near Marina del Rey--one of the largest undeveloped urban parcels in the area--which Summa plans to develop into some 12,000 housing units, hotels and office buildings.

Summa also is developing a planned community of 23,000 acres on the northwest perimeter of Las Vegas.

Goolsby joined Summa in 1980 and had overall responsibility for real estate operations in Nevada and California before becoming president and chief operating officer of Summa Corp.