William Boeing

His father came out of Hohenlimburg with very little and made a fortune twice, first in North Woods timber and then in Mesabi Range iron ore, and then died of influenza in 1890, when William was eight. His mother, a Viennese named Marie Ortmann, remarried in 1898 and moved to Virginia. The boy was sent to school in Vevey, Switzerland, then to St. Paul's in New Hampshire, then to Yale's Sheffield Scientific School to read engineering, which he abandoned in 1903 without a degree. At 22 he went to Hoquiam, Washington, bought timberland around Grays Harbor, and got rich in his own right shipping lumber. Then in 1909 he saw a flying machine at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle.

He learned to fly at Glenn L. Martin's school in Los Angeles and bought a Martin machine. With George Conrad Westervelt, a Navy engineer, he built a float biplane the two of them called the B&W, and in 1916 he incorporated Pacific Aero Products Co. to make more of them. When the United States entered the war in April 1917 he renamed the company Boeing. On March 3, 1919 he and the pilot Eddie Hubbard carried the first international airmail into the country from Vancouver, and mail contracts turned a boatbuilder's shop into an airline. In 1929 he merged with Frederick Rentschler's Pratt & Whitney to form United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, one company that made the engines, made the airframes and flew the routes. The government called that a monopoly.

What he did with the money afterward does not go on plaques. Between 1935 and 1944, Boeing and his wife Bertha set aside a large tract north of the Seattle city line and subdivided it into the communities of Richmond Beach, Richmond Heights, Innis Arden, Blue Ridge and Shoreview. The deeds carried racial covenants. The land could not be sold, conveyed, rented or leased, in whole or in part, to any person not of the white or Caucasian race. Instruments like these were ordinary in American suburban development and they did what they were written to do. The Innis Arden homeowners' association kept the clause in its bylaws until 2006 — 58 years after the Supreme Court made such covenants unenforceable in Shelley v. Kraemer, and 38 years after Congress outlawed them outright.

The exit was fast. Roosevelt cancelled the airmail contracts on February 19, 1934, and 13 Army pilots died flying the mail. The Air Mail Act of June 12 split manufacturing from flying, and on September 18 Boeing resigned as chairman at 52 rather than deal with the federal government again. He took the Guggenheim Medal that same year and went to horses, buying a 650-acre farm called Aldarra east of Seattle. On May 14, 1954 he turned up at Renton for the rollout of the 367-80, the prototype behind the 707. He died aboard his yacht Taconite on September 28, 1956, three days short of 75, and his ashes went into the water off British Columbia.

William Boeing's life against the full span of the corpus.

• B&W Seaplane invention
  Built with the Navy engineer George Conrad Westervelt — the first Boeing aircraft 1916
• Pacific Aero Products Co. company
  Renamed the Boeing Airplane Company in 1917 1916
• United Aircraft and Transport Corporation company
  Engines, airframes and airlines in one holding company. Broken up in 1934. 1929
• Aldarra Farm other
  A 650-acre thoroughbred operation east of Seattle 1937
• Innis Arden and Blue Ridge other
  Subdivisions whose deeds barred sale to anyone not of the white or Caucasian race 1940

• 1890 aged ~9 His father dies of influenza when he is eight
• 1903 aged ~22 Drops out of Yale and buys timberland at Grays Harbor
• 1909 aged ~28 Sees a flying machine at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
• 1916 aged ~35 Incorporates Pacific Aero Products Co. Renamed Boeing when the United States entered the war in April 1917.
• March 3, 1919 aged 37 Carries the first international airmail into the United States Flown from Vancouver with the pilot Eddie Hubbard.
• 1929 aged ~48 Forms United Aircraft and Transport with Frederick Rentschler
• September 18, 1934 aged 52 Resigns as chairman and leaves the industry at 52 The Air Mail Act of June 12 had forced manufacturing apart from flying.
• 1940 aged ~59 He and Bertha subdivide Innis Arden with racial covenants in the deeds The clause stayed in the homeowners' association bylaws until 2006.
• May 14, 1954 aged 72 Attends the rollout of the 367-80 at Renton The prototype behind the 707.

• Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882–1945
  32nd President who led the nation through the Great Depression and most of World War II. cancelled his airmail contracts
• Hugo Black 1886–1971
  Justice who championed strong First Amendment protections and incorporation of the Bill of Rights. chaired the investigation that ended his career
• Orville Wright 1871–1948
  Co-inventor of the first successful powered airplane, achieving human flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903. built the machine he went into business on
• Henry Ford 1863–1947
  Industrialist who revolutionized manufacturing with the assembly line and made automobiles affordable. fellow builder of an integrated industry
• Charles Lindbergh 1902–1974
  Aviator who made the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927. flew the routes his company opened