ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 31, 1996 TAG: 9605310040
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
The shelves are nearly bare now. The mementos of a 35-year career in railroading are packed in boxes, loaded to the brim like one of the coal cars that made John R. Turbyfill a business mogul.
Turbyfill, the vice chairman of Norfolk Southern Corp., is retiring today, ending a career that helped build the nation's fourth-largest railroad.
``Oddly enough, it feels pretty good,'' he said in an interview earlier this week. ``I've done all I'm going to do, and I have a good personal life.''
Besides, he would have bumped up against the railroad's mandatory retirement age of 65 in September.
Turbyfill has been a railroad industry fixture since before 1982 when Roanoke-based Norfolk and Western Railway Co. and Washington-based Southern Railway System agreed to merge, creating the current NS. He has overseen the company's pocketbook as its top financial officer for many years., Turbyfill has also played an active role in Norfolk's cultural development. He's a past president of the Virginia Stage Company's board and chairman of the National Maritime Center Authority, which operates Nauticus.
``I had some ambitions to be CEO,'' Turbyfill admits, but when other men were chosen, he said he greeted the news with a mixture of ``disappointment and relief.''
Still, Turbyfill has been in the railroad's inner circle for several decades. ``John has been a key figure really in the whole history of Norfolk Southern,'' said David R. Goode, the railroad's chairman and chief executive.
In the early 1960s, he wrote the construction contract for the railroad's Pier 6 coal terminal in Norfolk.
He haggled with Southern Railway executives over the nitty-gritty financial details of the merger and became the newly merged railroad's executive vice president of finance. He was intimately involved in Norfolk Southern's first attempt to buy Conrail in the mid-1980s, which was rejected by Congress.
He also spearheaded the company's 1985 purchase of North American Van Lines, the railroad's once troubled trucking unit. And he helped it decide not to buy all of Piedmont Aviation, operator of an airline that later became part of USAir.
He has been ``a valued adviser to my predecessor and to me,'' Goode said.
``John has a surprisingly dry wit,'' said Arnold McKinnon, who retired as chairman and chief executive in 1992. ``He's tough as nails and he's an excellent financial man. . . He has the ability to put things in wonderful perspective with his sense of humor.''
Turbyfill will be missed in the 19th-floor executive suite of Norfolk Southern's Norfolk headquarters, colleagues say. The railroad landscape is changing quickly. Western railroads are merging and may soon look east for partners to fulfill the century-old dream of a truly transcontinental railroad.
If NS isn't nimble enough, it could find itself being swallowed by one of the giant Western railroads or put at some competitive disadvantage by other mergers.
But Turbyfill has faith in Norfolk Southern's management.
``I'm not at all concerned about the future of Norfolk Southern, despite the severe handicap they're going to be under of not having me around,'' he said with typical dry wit.
``I think the company's going to continue to do well,'' he added. ``We've been a strong player for a long time, and I think we will continue to be a strong player no matter what happens.''
Turbyfill is neither short nor tall, large nor thin. His silver gray hair thins on top, but frames bright blue eyes. He's open and has a quick, sometimes self-deprecating wit.
Just as he has been active in many civic organizations in Norfolk, he was tapped for many duties before moving from Roanoke. He is a past president of the Roanoke Valley Chamber of Commerce, past president of the Roanoke Transportation Museum, and was chairman of the Roanoke Centennial Committee in 1982. And he serves as chairman of the Roanoke College Board of Trustees.
Asked why he got so involved in the community in both Roanoke and Norfolk, he deadpans that he was just ``dumb,'' before adding that it's rewarding and he enjoys meeting the people.
Born in Newland, N.C., a small town in the Blue Ridge, Turbyfill grew up the son of an itinerant mechanic. His family moved around a lot as his father went from job to job during the 1930s, repairing heavy roadbuilding equipment. Turbyfill attended 13 elementary schools.
His family moved to Virginia during World War II, eventually settling in Salem, where Turbyfill graduated from Andrew Lewis High School in 1949. His mother still lives in Salem.
He went to Roanoke College and then law school at the University of Virginia. After law school he was hired by Cravath, Swaine & Moore, a New York law firm, where he worked four years.
Turbyfill, once a reporter for The Roanoke Times, served as editor of the Virginia Law Review at UVa and was a member of the Raven Society.
He married Joyce Bolton during law school. They divorced in 1975 after having two children, Karen Denise Taylor and John Jr. Both children have married, and Turbyfill has four grandchildren.
During a visit with his parents, Turbyfill had dinner with Jack Fishwick, a family friend and an executive at Norfolk and Western. Fishwick would later become NW's chief executive. That dinner turned into a job offer that Turbyfill accepted.
He returned in 1960 to Virginia, where he worked in NW's Roanoke headquarters as an assistant general attorney. Negotiating the construction contract for a $30 million coal export pier in Norfolk was one of his first big assignments. It was a big thing for the young lawyer. ``I was kind of taken aback,'' he said.
It was the first of many big tasks he would perform for the railroad.
He left Roanoke for Cleveland in 1970 to become senior vice president for the Erie Lackawanna Railway Co. and Delaware and Hudson Railway Co., two NW subsidiaries.
In 1972, he returned to Roanoke to become NW's vice president for administration. In 1975, he was named vice president of finance and in 1980, executive vice president for finance, hanging onto the title when NW merged with the Southern Railway in 1982.
Besides overseeing much of the railroad's finances, Turbyfill also served as mentor to a younger generation of railroaders who came after him.
``The mark of John as a boss is to look around the company and see the number of people who worked for him who are now in senior positions,'' said Goode, who once worked under Turbyfill.
Turbyfill delegated authority, Goode said. Just as he was assigned important tasks early in his career, he gave the people under him responsibility.
``He gave people the freedom to succeed or fail,'' Goode said.
After Norfolk Southern came to Norfolk, Turbyfill became actively involved in community organizations. While it is the railroad's policy that executives get involved, Turbyfill's involvement pushed beyond just going to meetings, said Robert E. Brown, a Norfolk attorney who was the founding president of the Virginia Stage Company.
``John chose to involve himself in a sleeves-rolled-up kind of way in the community, particularly the arts,'' Brown said. ``He recognizes the worth - beyond the mere hackneyed phrase that it's good for business and the quality of life - that the arts expand the individuals seated in the audience.''
Turbyfill has recently been deeply involved with Nauticus and has served as chairman of the Norfolk Southern Foundation, which supports numerous cultural groups.
While he plans to scale back his involvement in retirement, he plans to focus more energy on his alma mater, Roanoke College.
He also plans to travel more with his wife, Kate Bellflower. The couple met while they were waiting to renew their drivers' licenses and were married five years ago.They are headed to California soon for a couple of weeks and Australia next spring.
Last year he also bought a 24-foot powerboat, which is docked behind his Virginia Beach home. Until about a year ago, he had lived in downtown Norfolk's Freemason neighborhood, just a short walk from his office, the Wells Theater and Nauticus.
He and his wife also recently joined the newl
They recently joined a golf club and plan to take up the game. But not until next week. ``I'm going to work all day Friday,'' he said. ``I'm not going to shortchange the company.''
- Staff writer Greg Edwards contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Long : 153 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot. John R.by CNBTurbyfill, vice chairman of Norfolk Southern, sits in the 19th-floor
lobby of the railroad's Norfolk headquarters. He retires today after
35 years with the company.
JOHN R. TURBYFILL has played a role in many of the railroad's
key decisions, including haggling over the details of Norfolk and
Western's 1982 merger with Southern Railway.