William A. Patterson
Template:Short description William A. "Pat" Patterson (October, 1899 – June 13, 1980) was the President of United Airlines from 1934 until 1966.<ref name="EAA">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Life and career
Patterson was born on a sugarcane plantation in Waipahu on Oahu, Hawaii. When Patterson was 13, his widowed mother moved to San Francisco, California, while he remained at Honolulu Military Academy. Not liking the academy, he decided to leave. He persuaded a captain to allow him to work on his ship in exchange for passage to San Francisco.<ref name="ANBHF">Template:Cite web</ref>
Instead of finishing high school in San Francisco, Patterson became an office worker at Wells Fargo bank, though he later attended night school. He became a teller and later a loan officer.<ref name="EAA"/><ref name="ANBHF"/>
As a loan officer, he authorized a loan to Pacific Air Transport and became an advisor to its founder and president Vern Gorst. When Gorst sold his airline to Boeing Air Transport, the advice that Gorst was receiving from Patterson brought the latter to the attention of Philip G. Johnson of Boeing.<ref name="EAA"/><ref name="ANBHF"/>
Patterson was recruited by Johnson, leaving Wells Fargo in 1929, and moving to Seattle, Washington, to be the assistant to the president of Boeing Airplane Company and Boeing Air Transport. In 1931 Boeing Air Transport was one of four airlines that merged into United Air Lines and Patterson moved to Chicago to become United's general manager.<ref name="NAHF">Template:Cite web</ref>
Two years later, Patterson was promoted to vice president of United. In 1934, in reaction to the Air Mail scandal and the departure of Johnson, Patterson became the company's president at the age of 34.<ref name="EAA"/>
Patterson is credited with starting the profession of flight attendant. He gave his approval to hire eight nurses to work as flight attendants on a three-month trial basis. On May 15, 1930, United became the first airline to use flight attendants, a practice that has since been adopted by every major airline.<ref name="ANBHF"/> Patterson's daughter, Patty, briefly worked for American Airlines as a flight attendant before her marriage rendered her ineligible.<ref name="UAHF">Template:Cite web</ref> Patterson and C. R. Smith, the CEO of American, shared a friendly rivalry.Template:Citation needed
Under Patterson, United invested in new technologies, such as the DC-4 and the DC-8 a pioneering jet,<ref name="NAHF"/> and purchased Capital Airlines in 1961 to become the United States' largest airline,<ref name="ANBHF"/> a title it would hold for nearly 40 years. In 1963, when Patterson became United's CEO and chairman of the board, the airline had more than 30,000 employees.Template:Citation needed
He was a life trustee of Northwestern University, and helped establish the Northwestern University Transportation Center in 1954. Patterson received the Tony Jannus Award in 1968 for his distinguished contributions to commercial aviation.<ref name="1968 Tony Janus Award">Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1976, for his contributions to aviation Patterson was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Patterson was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1980.<ref name="Archived JA">Template:Cite web</ref>
Near the end of his life, he was honored with the creation of the William A. Patterson Distinguished Chair in Transportation<ref name="Patterson Chair in Transportation">Template:Cite web</ref> through the gifts of more than 12,000 individual and corporate donors.Template:Citation needed After his death in 1980, the Patterson Endowment established an annual Patterson Lecture and provided other research support.<ref name="About NU Transportation Center">Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2006, Patterson was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.<ref>Sprekelmeyer, Linda, editor. These We Honor: The International Aerospace Hall of Fame. Donning Co. Publishers, 2006. Template:ISBN.</ref>
Family
Patterson's son, William A. Patterson Jr., was married to Marcia Motley, daughter of Arthur Harrison Motley.<ref name=GH4B> Good Head for Business: Arthur Harrison Motley, in The New York Times; published March 9, 1960; p. 20</ref>
See also
References
External links
Template:United Continental Holdings Template:Authority control