Edward Curtis Wells
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Edward Curtis Wells (26 August 1910 – July 1986) was senior vice president and served on the board of directors of Boeing Company.
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[edit] Early life
He was born in Boise, Idaho in 1910, and graduated from Grant High School in Portland, Oregon. He attended Willamette University for two years then attended Stanford University. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford in 1931 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Engineering.
[edit] Boeing connection
Wells joined Boeing Company's engineering staff 1931, and served as Chief of the Preliminary Design Unit in 1936 and Chief Project Engineer in Charge of Military Projects in 1938. In 1939, he became Assistant Chief Engineer and was named Boeing's Chief Engineer in 1943. He received the Lawrence Sperry Award from the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, in 1942, for his design contributions on four-engine aircraft.
The Seattle Junior Chamber of Commerce named Wells its "Young Man of the Year" in 1943 and he received the Fawcett Aviation Award in 1944 for scientific contribution to aviation. He received an honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from the University of Portland in 1946 and an honorary Doctorate of Science degree from Willamette University in 1953. Boeing promoted Wells to the position of Vice President and Chief Engineer in May 1948 and two months later named him Vice President of Engineering.
From April 1958 to August 1959, Wells served as Vice President and General Manager of Boeing's Systems Management Office. Systems Management Office coordinated the company-wide effort which resulted in Boeing winning the first-phase development contract for the X-20 and the assembly and test of the LGM-30 Minuteman. He became Vice President and General Manager of the company's Military Aircraft Systems Division when it came into existence in 1961.
In 1963, the Military Aircraft Systems Division merged with the Transport Division to form the Airplane Division. Wells was named group vice president of the Airplane Division in January 1965. A year later he served as vice president of Product Development. Wells took a partial leave of absence during the 1969-1970 academic year to serve as a visiting professor to the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. Before retiring in 1972, Wells would hold the positions of senior vice president of Airplanes and senior vice president-Technical.
He died in 1986 in Bellevue, Washington.
[edit] References
- Geer, Mary Wells. Boeing's Ed Wells. Seatlle: University of Washington Press, 1992. ISBN 0-295-97204-1.
- Serling, Robert J. Legend & Legacy: The Story of Boeing and its People. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. ISBN 0-312-05890-X.
