William Neal Deramus III (December 10, 1915 – November 15, 1989) was an American railroad executive; he led the

Chicago Great Western Railway The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Kansas City. It was founded by Alpheus Beede Stickney in 1885 as a regional line between St. Paul and the Iowa state line called the Minnesot ...

(CGW), the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, and the

Kansas City Southern Railway The Kansas City Southern Railway Company is an American Class I railroad. Founded in 1887, it operates in 10 midwestern and southeastern U.S. states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and ...

(KCS) through periods of great change in the railroad industry. Deramus graduated from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1936 and received his law degree from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1939, and upon graduation entered the railroading industry with the Wabash Railway as a minor executive. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he used his railroading background and skills to help run the

Ledo Road The Ledo Road (from Ledo, Assam, India to Kunming, Yunnan, China) was an overland connection between India and China, built during World War II to enable the Western Allies to deliver supplies to China and aid the war effort against Japan ...

, and upon his return, found work as an executive with the Kansas City Southern, which at the time was run by his father, William N. Deramus Jr. He was the youngest person ever to be elected to the presidency of a

Class I railroad In the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, st ...

in 1949 when he took the helm of the Chicago Great Western. In that year he also served on the board of directors for the second and final year of the

Chicago Railroad Fair The Chicago Railroad Fair was an event organized to celebrate and commemorate 100 years of railroad history west of Chicago, Illinois. It was held in Chicago in 1948 and 1949 along the shore of Lake Michigan and is often referred to as "the last ...

. His tenure at the CGW was marked by increased modernization of the physical plant of the railroad and cost cutting. He left the CGW for a three-year stint as president of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas in 1957, where he also reduced operating and maintenance costs. He simplified the locomotive paint schemes and introduced a less expensive paint referred to as Deramus red. He then took over for his father as president of the KCS.''New York Times'' November 18, 1989.

Notes

1915 births 1989 deaths University of Michigan alumni Harvard Law School alumni 20th-century American railroad executives Chicago Great Western Railway presidents Kansas City Southern Railway {{US-rail-bio-stub