Thornton Arnold "T" Wilson, retired chairman of Boeing, led the company through its darkest hours in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but he left his mark on the aerospace giant in planes still flying today.
Known to friends and colleagues as just "T" - without the period - Mr. Wilson died early Saturday (April 10) in his sleep at his winter home in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 78.
The cause of death was unknown, but he had a history of heart problems - years ago, he had a heart attack aboard a jetliner, which had to make an emergency stop in Spokane so he could be treated.
Colleagues credit him with being smart, decisive and able to look beyond adversity to the creation of a global company.
Mr. Wilson joined Boeing in 1943 as an engineer. He became company president in 1968, chief executive officer in 1969 and chairman in 1972. He retired as CEO in 1986 and as board chairman in 1987, though he served as chairman emeritus until 1993.
He was Boeing chief executive in the early 1970s, a period that came to be known as the "Boeing Bust" when some 60,000 workers were laid off.
A Missouri farm boy who became an aeronautical engineer, Mr. Wilson faced his hardest test in directing the massive staff cuts, when business slumped.
The layoffs caused the "Boeing Bust," prompting local real-estate brokers to post that famous billboard: "Will the last person leaving Seattle turn out the lights?"
But if he hadn't had the courage to make the cuts, Boeing likely would have gone bust itself, said Robert Twiss, a retired Seattle Times reporter who covered Boeing during those years.
Later, in the early 1980s, Mr. Wilson staked the company's continuing future in development of the twin-engine 757 and 767 jets - airplane models still being produced today.
Mr. Wilson also had a major influence in building up Boeing's military strength to offset the quirks of the commercial-airplane business in the 1970s. He had worked on the massive B-52 bomber as project engineer in later design stages. The big bombers remain key elements of the U.S. military, playing a role in the current action in Kosovo.
The Minuteman missile was another of Mr. Wilson's early projects, establishing Boeing as a leader of large systems integration work.
Tall, imposing, sharp and sometimes moody - but still personable - Mr. Wilson preferred to keep his business private. Boeing business was tightly held during his reign, and he hung up on many reporters.
Born in Sikeston, Mo., a small, close-knit community, on Feb. 8, 1921, he said he learned there the kind of solid values he later incorporated in his management. Others said he had no use for "modern management" and bureaucracies.
He also drove an economy car and worked in an unpretentious executive office with few trappings of power surrounding him. But everyone knew the power was there.
Mr. Wilson told friends that his father began calling him T, rather than Thornton, after the father had a falling out with a friend named Thornton. If someone asked at the office for T.A. Wilson, his secretary knew it wasn't a close friend.
Tex Boullioun, a longtime Boeing executive and commercial-airplane salesman, said Mr. Wilson always was straightforward.
"If he didn't like something, he told us, but he also mentioned it if he did approve. We understood each other," Boullioun said.
Mr. Wilson didn't change in retirement, still playing golf and telling stories, said Stanley Little, who worked with him for more than 40 years.
Phil Condit, Boeing chairman, said few men were more closely linked to Boeing's success and the global aerospace industry than Mr. Wilson - actively involved in the introduction of the jet age for both large military and commercial aircraft.
"T's name was synonymous with excellence, and we will deeply miss him."
Frank Shrontz, who succeeded Mr. Wilson as chairman and chief executive, said Mr. Wilson was a man of high ethics who was greatly disappointed when Boeing had to plead guilty to contract-procurement irregularities in the 1980s. Shrontz added that Mr. Wilson was also compassionate, especially about the workers he had to lay off.
Mr. Wilson belonged to many professional societies and won numerous awards, including being named to the National Aviation Hall of Fame for engineering and managerial achievements. In 1987, the Museum of Flight in Tukwila named a newly constructed glass gallery after Mr. Wilson.
Mr. Wilson and his wife, Grace, were married Aug. 5, 1944, and made their permanent home in Normandy Park. They have three children, Thornton A. Wilson III of Seattle, Daniel Wilson of Newcastle and Sarah Parkinson of Enumclaw; and six grandchildren.
There will be no funeral service, only a small family gathering in his honor. The family said remembrances may be sent to the University of Washington.