Great Living Cincinnatians: Honorees

Howard Morgens rose from a junior soap salesman to become chairman and chief executive officer at The Procter & Gamble Co. He was a vital force in our community since he first arrived in 1934. His business leadership is legendary. During the period of his most intense leadership, from 1957 to 1974, he guided P&G’s evolution from essentially a U.S. soap and shortening company with some adjuncts into a broadly diversified worldwide business.

He was devoted to his work with the Citizens Development Committee, a group that worked to develop the city’s master plan. He served first as head of the group’s expressway committee, and from 1954 to 1958 served as chairman. He was a director from 1949 to 1967.

Morgens was a renowned business leader nationally as well as locally. He helped organize the Business Roundtable in 1972, a group of the nation’s highest business executives who work with congressional committees to make the business point of view known. He was a founding member of the National Industrial Pollution Control Council. The list of business and civic groups with which he has been active is a lengthy and distinguished one.