Mr. Hewitt served with the United States Naval Reserve in 1942 - 1946 as lieutenant commander. He was with the accounting department of Standard Oil of California in San Francisco, Calif. (1938 - 1939), and the Texas Co. (TEXACO) in 1939 - 1940. In 1940 - 1942 he was a copywriter with Roos Brothers in San Francisco. He was advertising and sales promotion manager with Pacific Tractor and Implement Co. in Richmond, Calif., in 1946 - 1948. He was territory manager with John Deere Plow Co. in San Francisco in 1948 - 1950, and general manager in 1950 - 1954. He was with Deere and Co. in Moline, Ill., as executive vice president in 1954 - 1955, president and chief executive officer in 1955 - 1964, and chairman and chief executive officer since 1964.

He served on Presidential appointments as a member of the Special Committee on United States Trade Relations with East European Countries and the Soviet Union (1965), the National Advisory Commission on Food and Fiber (1965 - 1967); as incorporator of the National Corporation for Housing Partnerships (1968); as a member of the Presidential Task Force on International Development (1969), the National Council on the Humanities (1975 - 1980), and the President's Commission for a National Agenda for the Eighties (1980 - 1981).

Mr. Hewitt graduated from the University of California at Berkeley (B.A., 1937) and attended Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration. His foreign language is French. He is married, has three children, and resides in Rock Island, Ill. He was born August 9, 1914.