Olive Ann Beech

Olive Ann Beech ( born September 25, 1903 in Waverly, Kansas, † July 6, 1993 in Wichita, Kansas) was an American entrepreneur.

Childhood and youth

Born as Olive Ann Mellor, daughter of a real estate agent, she grew up in the city of Paola.

It is narrated that her mother should have recognized early the talent of the small Olive Ann in dealing with money. So it has to have at the age of 7 years with a private bank account, they too should have already had an available proxy for the bank transactions of their parents at age 11.

When the family had moved in 1917 to Wichita, Olive Ann attended the American Secretarial and Business College there. At the age of 18 she left Wichita and joined a job as a secretary at a company in Kansas.

Entry into the aviation

In 1924, Olive Ann Mellor had the first contact with the aviation industry when she was hired as Sektretärin in the company of Walter Beech, the Travel Air Company.

She was the only woman in addition to the 12 male employees, they also did not have a pilot's license, while all other operating employees had a pilot's license. However, she was eager to learn and capable of learning and could be explained by the chief designer of the company with reference to a drawing, the various components of an aircraft. This drawing is said to have used for many years in the training of newly hired secretaries.

Quickly Olive Ann worked in the company up, was an office manager and later executive secretary of Walter Beech.

In 1930 she married her boss.

The young entrepreneur

With the merger of Beechs business with the company Curtiss -Wright as a result of the world economic crisis and the associated move of the couple to New York Olive Ann Beech was unemployed, but already in 1932, she returned with her ​​husband back to Wichita, and the two formed there the Beech Aircraft Company.

While Walter intensively the design and construction of new aircraft models turned, especially the construction of a rapid and convenient business aircraft, Olive Ann was responsible for the business side of the company.

Over the next few years, the now renamed Beech Aircraft Corporation Company became one of the most successful companies in the aircraft industry.

When Walter Beech in 1940 became seriously ill and had to stay in hospital for nearly a year Olive Ann took over the operation solely responsible.

After her husband, with whom she had two daughters together, died of a heart attack in November 1950, she led the company continued in its sense, and not less successful.

The "First Lady of Aviation "

Under her leadership, the company expanded later known as Beechcraft, over the next 30 years to more than 10,000 employees.

As Beechcraft in February 1980 with the company Raytheon merged, Olive Ann Beech was voted one of the board members of Raytheon. In 1982 she retired from the management of the enterprise.

For their importance in the U.S. aerospace industry, she received numerous awards and is known in the U.S. as the " First Lady of Aviation ".

Olive Ann Beech has made to her life no pilot's license.