William Edward Boeing (1881 - 1956)

Born 1 Oct 1881 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States

Husband of Bertha Marie (Potter) Boeing — married 27 Sep 1921 in King, Washington, United States

Descendants

Died 28 Sep 1956 at age 74 in Puget Sound, Kitsap, Washington, United States

Biography

William Boeing is Notable.

American aviation pioneer who founded The Boeing Company in 1916. He was posthumously inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, in 1966

William Edward Boeing,the oldest of three children, was born in Detroit, Michigan to Wilhelm Böing (1846–1890) from Hagen-Hohenlimburg, Germany, and Marie M. Ortmann, from Vienna, Austria. His father Wilhelm Böing emigrated to the United States in 1868 and initially worked as a laborer. He later made a fortune from North Woods timber lands and mineral rights near Lake Superior. In 1889, the younger William Boeing lost his father to influenza, and his mother Marie soon remarried. He anglicized his name to "William Boeing" and enrolled at Yale University. He left Yale in 1903, and moved to Grays Harbor, Washington, where he learned the logging business, beginning with timberlands that he inherited from his father's estate. Five years later, he moved to Seattle, Washington, and established the Greenwood Logging Company. In 1909, he observed his first heavier-than-air flying machine at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, and was fascinated with the idea of flying. The next year, he attended an aviation meeting in Los Angeles, California, learning more about aviation. In 1914, he met United States Navy aviator Lieutenant George Conrad Westervelt, who was looking into purchasing airplanes for Navy use; they would become close friends, and a year later, Westervelt and Boeing would fly around Seattle together. In 1915, Boeing became a pilot after completing the course of instruction at the Glenn Martin Flying School in Los Angeles, and upon completion, he purchased a Martin TA Biplane. Both Boeing and Westervelt felt that they were capable of building a better airplane together. In 1916, William Boeing joined with Westervelt to form the Pacific Aero Products Company, building their first airplane, a biplane seaplane called the B&W (for Boeing and Westervelt) Model 1. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, William Boeing changed the company name to Boeing Airplane Company, and obtained an order to construct 50 training planes for the United States Navy.

He bought an old boat works on the Duwamish River near Seattle for his factory. After the war, he concentrated on making commercial aircraft, and built a successful airmail delivery operation. Using his own airplane, William Boeing delivered 60 letters from Vancouver to Seattle as part of the Canadian Exposition, becoming the first to deliver international airmail to the United States. In 1927, the Boeing Airplane Company won the bid to establish an airmail route between Chicago, Illinois and San Francisco, California.

Two years later, the company changed its name to United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, reflecting its growing diversity in airlines, aircraft and aircraft parts manufacturing, and schools for training pilots and maintenance personnel. In 1934, the United States Government accused William Boeing of monopolistic practices and violating the Air Mail Act. When the company was split into three independent companies, United Aircraft Corporation, United Air Lines and Boeing Aircraft Corporation, William Boeing sold his stock, resigned as chairman, and retired. In 1934, he was awarded the Daniel Guggenheim Medal for aeronautical achievement. During World War II, he would return to act as a consultant to his own company, but spent the next 22 years in real estate development and animal breeding, establishing a cattle, sheep and horse farm northeast of Seattle and working to improve their health lines and raising the standards of beef stock. His airplane company would become a manufacturing giant in World War II. In 1954, he and his wife commissioned the Dash 80 airplane, which would become the Boeing 707, the first of a long line of successful Boeing commercial aircraft.

In 1921, William Boeing married Bertha Marie (nee Potter) Paschall (1891-1977). She had previously been married to Nathaniel Paschall, a real estate broker with whom she had two sons, Nathaniel "Nat" Paschall Jr. and Cranston Paschall, and these two became William Boeing's stepsons. The couple had a son of their own, William E. Boeing Jr. (1922–2015). William Boeing died on September 28, 1956, at the age of 74, just three days before his 75th birthday. He had had a heart attack aboard his yacht in Puget Sound, Washington. His ashes were scattered off the coast of British Columbia.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHNW-16X : accessed 12 April 2019), William E Boeing, Stewart, King, Washington, United States; citing ED 40, sheet 2B, line 78, family 51, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 1924; FHL microfilm 1,821,924.

• Find A Grave: Memorial #10969 William Edward Boeing

• WW2 Draft Registration: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-47001-1186-12?cc=1861144

• "Washington, County Marriages, 1855-2008," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKNY-1JQ5 : 3 November 2017), William E Boeing and Bertha P Paschall, 27 Sep 1921, King, Washington, United States, State Archives, Olympia; FamilySearch digital folder 004213262.

• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XCS1-GW2 : accessed 12 April 2019), William E Boeing, Foy, King, Washington, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 282, sheet 4B, line 80, family 117, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2490; FHL microfilm 2,342,224.

See Also:

• Wikipedia: William Boeing
• Wikidata: Item Q214826, en:Wikipedia