Business: The Engineer of Success

Around Boeing's spartan hangar-like headquarters in Seattle, they call him the "old shoe," and Thornton Arnold ("T") Wilson, 59, certainly is that. Eight years ago, when he became chairman of the board, he did not bother moving out of his noisy office to more elegant surroundings down the hall. Each morning he sheds his suit jacket and conducts business in a navy blue sweater. When the temperature gets too cold, he can even be seen working in his hat and overcoat. And despite a yearly income in the million-dollar range, Wilson still lives in the same house he bought 30 years ago and drives himself to work in a Honda Accord. Behind the folksy down-home style, though, is a tough, raw-hewn engineer. On his office wall hangs a laminated olive branch, a peace offering from a group of squabbling managers who once exasperated their chairman. When they could not reach a consensus at a meeting, Wilson slammed his folder shut and stalked out, telling them to see him when they had something to talk about. From the time he was in high school in Jefferson City, Mo., Wilson knew he wanted to sell airplanes. Even then, he had the knack for dramatizing issues. He once led a strike by high school students to get a new playground. As the school board was deliberating its decision, Wilson had the school band oom-pah-pah-ing under its windows. He got the playground. He graduated in 1943 with a degree in aeronautical engineering from Iowa State University, where he was captain of the swimming team and a champion at high jinks. On the way home from a meet, he picked up a lady's underpants and stuffed them into his coach's suitcase.

While in college, Wilson planned to join the Army Air Corps, but in his senior year he broke his foot tobogganing.