Alexander Wilson, left, succeeded Ed Littlefield as president and general manager, while Littlefield succeeded Marriner Eccles as chairman of the Board of Directors. Eccles was named honorary chairman. In July 1971 Utah International underwent a major change in leadership. Littlefield was elected chairman of the Board of Directors while Wilson succeeded Littlefield as president. Eccles was honored for a half century of service and released as chairman. Yet company leaders did not yet want to sever the tie entirely. Moments later, he was elected honorary chairman of the Board of Directors. As chairman of the Board of Directors, Littlefield pondered the problems for the company's shareholders. If shareholders needed to sell a large block of UI stock, for example, they could pay a capital gains tax as high as 75 percent. Reasoning that UI's soaring profits and earnings must eventually diminish one way or another, Littlefield quietly scanned the industrial landscape for an advantageous merger. Only one company seemed to him ideal: the venerable and massive General Electric. Littlefield sat on GE's Board of Directors, and Reginald H. Jones, chairman and chief executive of GE, sat on Utah International's Board. Initially Littlefield proposed the idea of a merger to Marriner and George Eccles and was relieved to find that the brothers approved. "Both George and Marriner thought this was a stroke of genius," Littlefield related. "I think everybody recognized that, from a standpoint of all concerned, this was a great idea. From our standpoint the advantages were obvious. Our largest shareholders got instant diversification - an increase in their dividend and a premium for their stock." Littlefield knew that General Electric officials were interested in "acquiring earnings of the type that Utah International had, which were mineral assets in the ground. At that time the United States was experiencing double-digit inflation," he explained. "Theoretically, assets in the ground would appreciate, or at least hold their value, whereas other assets were robbed of their value by inflation." All the discussions of a possible merger were held in great secrecy. After Littlefield and Jones reached consensus, they hired the Morgan Stanley firm to define the terms for a fair deal.