Chapter 6 REINVIGORATING MANAGEMENT 89 Washington to pledge the support of the E. O. family for a reorganization that would be in the best interests of the stockholders, that did not seek offices for family members, and that would reduce or eliminate the internal friction. Mitchell persuaded Wattis and Dumke of the wisdom of this approach, and Littlefield was off to broach the idea to Eccles, who later met with Wattis and Mitchell in Ogden to ratify the concept. In the meantime, the Bowmans continued to hold to the old pattern of family succession and hoped to secure for the W. H. side a Major management position in the company, perhaps for their son Donald, who had become a director in 1938 at age twenty-seven. Then, to signal his new alliance with the E. O. group, Eccles informed George Bowman on May 15, 1944, that the board, with the exception of the W. H. representatives, was dissatisfied with his management of the ranch and livestock division. Twenty-four hours later, Donald Bowman resigned his vice presidency and directorship in a letter to the board, saying he did not care to work with the present management. The committee accepted the resignation and nominated Seale (husband of Donald’s sister) for a board membership. This clever and conciliatory gesture was approved on September 28, 1944, although Seale remained with Kaiser in California. In a rancorous and intemperate reaction, with unfortunate financial costs to them and their descendants, George and Stella Bowman sold their stock “in a cold fury.” The Bowmans asked William H. (Billy) Harris, a Utah vice president and secretary/ treasurer (married to E. O.’s daughter Mattie Cassidy Wattis), to help them dispose of their shares. Harris told Marriner Eccles, who passed the word on to Eccles S$. Browning, who then purchased the 2,594 shares. Saying later he was not sure they had readily available money, Harris did not inform the larger E. O. Wattis family nor the Dee family. Browning kept 2,357 shares, and distributed 237 shares to his own family, to the W. H. family, and a few to one of his secretaries. With the former block of W. H.-based shares now fragmented, the gap between the two Wattis families widened. In the aftermath of all this, and in reaction to Donald Bowman’s outspoken criticisms of management and other members of the board, a shareholders’ meeting convened on October 13, 1944, to