Wilhelm Boeing Essay

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William was born on October 1, 1881 in Detroit, Michigan to the parents Marie. M Ortmann and Wilhelm Boeing. When he was born he was originally given the name Wilhelm , same as his father, but later on it was changed to William. Boeing Sr. ( William’s Father ) immigrated to America in 1868 at the age of 20. He began working as a farm laborer when he arrived in the states but then decided to work with Karl Ortmann, a lumberman. The two were very successful together and Wilhelm had many successes himself. He bought lots of timberland, as well as mineral rights in the Mesabi Range. He even became the director of the People’s Savings Bank and the President of the Galvin Brass and Iron Works. Later on, at the age of 42, Wilhelm died of influenza. …show more content…

His mother, shortly after, remarried and became Marie Owsley. William didn’t particularly like his new stepfather and they didn’t get along very well. Due to this, William was sent to school in Vevay, Switzerland. He only stayed there for about a year and came back to the United States to continue at a private school. After his high school graduation, Boeing went on to the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale and studied for about 3 years but, did not graduate. Instead, he travelled out to Grays Harbor, Washington where he learned the logging business and he started with the lands that he inherited from his father. This was just the start of all the wealth he would soon gain. In 1908, Boeing moved to Seattle where he continued his timber business and first began to discover more things about his love for planes and the aviation industry. In 1910, William attended an aviation meet where he then met Conrad Westervelt, a US Navy Lieutenant. The two became very close friends and when a pilot named Terah Maroney brought a hydroplane to Seattle later that year, Boeing and Westervelt jumped at the opportunity to fly with him. During one of the flight sessions with Maroney, Boeing was sitting beside him studying the landscape as they began to

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