Edward Curtis Wells

Ed Wells redirects here. For the baseball player, see Ed Wells (baseball) Edward Curtis Wells (August 26, 1910 – July 1, 1986) was senior vice president and served on the board of directors of Boeing Company. He designed the Boeing 747. He was known as the "elder statesman of aviation". He was born in Boise, Idaho on August 26, 1910. He 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. Wells joined Boeing Company's engineering staff in 1931 and was named Boeing's chief engineer in 1943. He died on July 1, 1986 in Bellevue, Washington.