Frank Shrontz

Frank Shrontz, who spent a decade leading US aviation giant Boeing Co. through upswings and downturns amid fierce competition, has died. He was 92. He died on May 3 2024, according to the Seattle Mariners, the Major League Baseball team in which he had been an ownership partner. Shrontz, an attorney by training, was Boeing’s chief executive officer from 1986 to 1996. Frank Anderson Shrontz was born on Dec. 14, 1931, in Boise, Idaho. He was the son of Thurlyn Shrontz, who owned a bicycle shop, and the former Florence Anderson. In 1954, he graduated with a law degree from the University of Idaho in Boise before earning an MBA from Harvard University four years later. Shrontz spent most of his career at Boeing. He started as a contracts coordinator in 1958 before working as an executive in several departments including sales and marketing, and planning. In 1973, Shrontz left the company to become assistant secretary of the US Air Force and spent the last year of President Gerald Ford’s administration as assistant secretary for defense. Shrontz returned to Boeing in 1977 as vice president of contract planning and administration. He spent the next four years as general manager of the company’s commercial airplane division responsible for manufacturing the 707, 727 and 737 aircraft and became the unit’s president in 1984. His wife, the former Harriet Houghton, died in 2012. They had three sons: Craig, Richard and David.