Alco Standard Corp

Aerospace Technologies Inc., a unit of Alco Standard Corp., received a $9.9-million Air Force contract for F-111 aircraft parts.

Unisource Corp. announced it will expand its customer service operations next month and move them from Long Beach to Huntington Beach, creating more than 100 new jobs for Orange County. The wholesale paper distributor cited Huntington Beach's reputation as a safe city and the high number of professionals living in the area.

Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. said Wednesday that it has started a new unit to buy copier and facsimile machine dealerships across the nation. The creation of Topac USA Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Toshiba, comes as large numbers of independently owned copier and fax dealers are being bought up by large regional retail distributors such as Danka Business Systems in Florida and Alco Standard Corp. in Pennsylvania, analysts said.

McKesson Corp., the nation's largest wholesaler of drugs, toiletries and sundries, said Tuesday that it agreed to buy Alco Health Services Co., another major distributor of pharmaceutical products, for $500 million. With the acquisition, McKesson will take a giant step forward as the undisputed leader in the drug wholesaling business, analysts and industry sources said.

Stock prices closed lower Thursday, breaking a three-session winning streak as Wall Street's "Gorbachev rally" showed signs of fading. The Dow Jones index of 30 industrials, which had risen 61.35 in the week's first three trading days, dropped 11.92 to 2,141.71. Declining issues outnumbered advances by about 9 to 5 in New York Stock Exchange trading. Big Board volume slowed to 124.15 million shares from Wednesday's 148.36 million.

After seven years with J.W. Seligman, where she ran the high-performing Seligman Growth Fund, Suzanne Zak joined Minneapolis-based Investment Advisers Inc., where she has run the IAI Midcap Growth Fund since July 1993. Focusing on companies with market capitalization averaging between $1 billion and $3 billion, Zak has produced some of the strongest returns in the field but with lower risk than the typical growth fund. She spoke from her office with Times staff writer Thomas S. Mulligan.

Perhaps the worst day was the one when Dick Wilson walked in a corporate vice president and walked out a warehouse supervisor. Then came the taunts about his age from his bosses at Monarch Paper Co., the sign on the wall that said, "Wilson is old," the feeling that all these people around him were hellbent on showing him the door. At the time, Dick Wilson was 59. There were so many bad days back then, when younger men started taking over his duties, when he was offered a sales job at half pay.