Walter H. Beech Scholarship in Aeronautical Engineering

As a 10-year-old farm boy in Tennessee, Walter H. Beech dreamt that one day he might fly. His extraordinary vision resulted in a life devoted to aviation as a pilot, instructor, engineer and manufacturer.

Mr. Beech and his wife, Olive Ann, co-founded Beech Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kan., in 1932. Surviving lean times, business picked up by 1934. In 1938, sales reached $1 million, but impending war meant retooling in 1940 for military aircraft. By 1941, the company’s back log for military planes had reached $82 million.

As one of the Beech’s many lasting legacies at WSU, the couple personally established the Walter H. Beech Scholarship in Aeronautical Engineering in 1949.

Considered to be one of America’s greatest aircraft designers and industrialists, Mr. Beech died in 1950. Mrs. Beech steered the company until 1982. ‘The First Lady of Aviation’ died in 1993.

Mr. and Mrs. Beech were both inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame for their respective accomplishments in the aviation industry. Because of the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Beech, the memory of such a pioneer lives on in the aviation industry, as well as in the hearts of pilots, and of those who dream of flight.