 He held this position until May, 1951, when he was named president, succeeding Francis J. Gavin who had been in office since 1939.John Budd's father, Ralph Budd, another civil engineer, was president of the Great Northern from 1919 to 1930, and president of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, a company half-owned by the Great Northern in cooperation with the Northern Pacific Railway, from 1930 until his retirement in 1949.In 1955, Budd entered discussions with Robert Stetson Macfarlane, president of the Northern Pacific, about merger of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and the Burlington.