NATION

AMF Inc., which was recently acquired by a company controlled by financier Irwin L. Jacobs, said Monday that W. Thomas York and William P. Sovey resigned as chairman and president, respectively.

AMF said Kenneth J. Severinson has been named chairman and chief executive of the company, which was acquired earlier this month by Minneapolis-based Minstar Inc. in a cash and debt deal valued at about $300 million.

Severinson is also chairman of Glendale-based Bekins Co., which was acquired by Minstar last year. He has worked with Minstar and Jacobs in various executive posts for eight years, AMF said.

AMF spokesman Rocco Portanova declined comment when asked whether York and Sovey left voluntarily or were asked to resign.

AMF, based in White Plains, N.Y., produces electronic controls and systems, energy products, specialty materials and marine equipment. It also makes bowling equipment and other sporting goods. In the first half of 1985, AMF lost $7.25 million on revenue of $511.6 million.

Federated Department Stores, the Cincinnati-based parent of Bullock’s department stores and Ralphs supermarkets, named as directors Clifton R. Wharton Jr., chancellor of the State University of New York, and John W. Burden III, a Federated vice chairman.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Pamela K. Anderson has been appointed president of Hawthorne-based Maxicare Health Plans Inc., the nation’s largest investor-owned health maintenance organization. The 38-year-old Anderson, who is married to Maxicare Chairman Fred W. Wasserman, assumes the post that was left open in March when her husband was elected chairman. Anderson will continue as chief operating officer, a job she has held since May, 1984. She had been executive vice president since 1972.

Harold M. Williams, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and president and chief executive of the J. Paul Getty Trust, has been named a director of American Medical International Inc., Beverly Hills.

Richard Tremblay has been named by the Province of Quebec to head the economic section of its Los Angeles office. He succeeds Andre Migneault, who moved to the New York office.

CALIFORNIA

Former U.S. Atty. Gen. William French Smith has been elected a director of Pacific Telesis, San Francisco, and its Pacific Bell subsidiary. Smith is senior partner in the Los Angeles law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

American President Cos., an Oakland-based intermodal container shipping firm, named transportation consultant John E. Flynn executive vice president, chief financial officer and a director.