Executive Who Led USX Steel Division Retires

USX Corp.’s top steel executive, Thomas Graham, who was credited with transforming the United States Steel division from an ailing company to a domestic steel leader, retired Friday.

In a surprise, the company said it will not be naming a successor immediately.

Graham, 64, had been vice president of steel and diversified products for USX since 1983.

His departure leaves Thomas Usher, president of U.S. Steel group, as the executive reporting directly to USX Chairman Charles Corry on steel operations.

Usher, USX’s chief negotiator in contract talks with the United Steelworkers of America last year, is said to be popular with union leaders.

Thomas Ferrell, a USX spokesman, said it was “not a forgone conclusion” that a new vice chairman will be named. Ferrell said Usher will continue to hold the post he has had since October.

The announcement that no immediate successor to Graham would be named came in a prepared statement from Corry, who praised Graham for achievements that “won him enormous respect throughout the world steel industry.”

“Tom came to U.S. Steel at the depth of the steel depression of the early 1980s. At the time, there was an urgent need for major restructuring and reversal of the steel division’s competitive standing, “ Corry said. “He exerted powerful and resourceful leadership in reshaping our steel business.”

Graham joined U.S. Steel in 1983 as vice chairman and chief operating officer for steel and related resources. He came to the post from LTV Steel Corp., where he had been president and chief executive.