Frederick R. Kappel, a former chairman of what is now AT&T; Corp. who later held posts in the Johnson and Nixon administrations, died from Alzheimer's disease Thursday in Sarasota, Fla. He was at 92.
During his 11-year tenure as AT&T;'s top executive, a period when the local Bell telephone companies were a part of AT&T;, the number of the company's telephones grew by more than 60 percent, to more than 80 million.
President Lyndon B. Johnson named Mr. Kappel chairman of a number of presidential commissions, including the Commission on Postal Organization.
Under President Richard M. Nixon, Mr. Kappel was a governor of the U.S. Postal Service and, from 1972 to 1974, its chairman.
Mr. Kappel spent 43 years at AT&T;, joining the company in 1924 after graduating from the University of Minnesota. He started as a $25-a-week digger of telephone poles for the Northwestern Bell Telephone Co. in Minnesota.
He rose steadily, and, in 1954, became president of Western Electric, the company's manufacturing subsidiary.
Two years later he was named president and chief executive of the American Telephone and Telegraph Co., as it was known then, and was elected chairman in 1961. He retired in 1967.
In addition to government assignments, Mr. Kappel held posts at the International Paper Co. He was chairman of International Paper's board from 1969 to 1971.