Olive Ann Beech

Olive Ann Beechwas an American business executive who served first as secretary-treasurer (1932–50) and then as president (1950–68) and chairman of the board (1950–82) of Beech Aircraft Corporation, a major manufacturer of business and military airplanes founded by her and her husband, Walter H. Beech. She was the first woman to lead a Fortune 500 company.

Olive Ann Mellor studied bookkeeping and stenography at a secretarial and business school in Wichita, Kansas, and then worked as a bookkeeper for an electrical supply and contracting firm in nearby Augusta. In 1924 she was hired by the Travel Air Manufacturing Company, which had recently been founded in Wichita and was being run by flyers and aircraft engineers Lloyd Stearman, Clyde Cessna, and Walter Beech. Soon she was handling the business end of the operation, working variously as secretary, bookkeeper, and office manager of the growing company. In 1930 Olive Ann and Walter were married. Two daughters were born of their marriage, which also was the foundation of a remarkable business partnership.

In 1929 Walter, who had assumed the presidency of Travel Air, sold the company to the Curtiss-Wright Company and stayed on as an officer of the new parent company. The couple lived at various times in St. Louis and New York City. In 1932, at the depth of the Great Depression, Walter and Olive Ann returned to Wichita and founded the Beech Aircraft Company with another investor and a small group of engineers. Olive Ann was the secretary-treasurer, again handling business matters while her husband, the company president, designed and sold airplanes. In 1936, when the company issued common stock, Olive Ann became a member of the board of directors of Beech Aircraft Corporation. Also in that year she suggested that female aviator Louise Thaden compete in the prestigious Bendix Transcontinental Air Race in a Beechcraft Staggerwing, one of a series of large, fast, and expensive biplanes that the company had been producing for the business market. Thaden won the coast-to-coast race, bringing important publicity to the company.

World War II brought great change and growth to Beech Aircraft, as it expanded production and converted some of its models to military use. Olive Ann played a central role, obtaining financing for plant expansion and assuming personal control over the company while her husband was hospitalized in 1940 with an attack of encephalitis. After the war the company resumed civilian production but also continued to produce for the U.S. military and began to subcontract subassemblies for other aircraft companies.

Walter died in 1950, and Olive Ann was elected to replace him as president and chairman of the board; she thereby became the first woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. She ran the company for the next 18 years, during which time Beech Aircraft expanded its line of high-performance general aviation planes, subcontracted work in the space exploration industry, and also produced military trainers, transports, and target drones. Olive Ann steadfastly resisted bringing the company into the jet age, arguing that it was more profitable to build on the company’s historic line of propeller-driven craft, for which there was still a market. During her tenure she progressively removed or disciplined several company directors who were relatives and old colleagues of her late husband, all the while elevating her own nephew, Frank Hedrick, to greater responsibilities in the company.

As the astute, imperious, and impeccably tailored female president of a successful company, Beech became renowned among journalists and aerospace enthusiasts as the “first lady” and “queen” of American aviation. Made wealthy by the company’s success, she patronized arts groups and funded local and statewide scholarships. She received many honours and tributes, including the National Aeronautic Association’s Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy in 1980 “for five decades of outstanding leadership in the development of general aviation.” Beech, who never learned to fly, was the first woman to receive that award. In 1968 Beech handed over the presidency of Beech Aircraft to Hedrick while staying on as chairman of the board. In 1980 Beech Aircraft was purchased by the Raytheon Company, and Beech became a member of the board of the new owner. In 1982 Raytheon requested the resignations of Beech and Hedrick, and Beech fully retired from the aerospace business.