Frank Anderson Shrontz, former chairman and CEO of aircraft manufacturer Boeing and co-owner of the Seattle Mariners baseball team, has died, the Mariners announced in a statement Saturday.
Mr. Shrontz joined Boeing in 1958 before taking a break and then returning to serve as chairman and CEO for a decade. He died on May 3 at the age of 92, according to the press release.
Mr. Shrontz worked at the Department of Defense during the administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford during his brief stint outside the company, including as deputy secretary of the Air Force, before rejoined the plane maker in 1977, according to a biography posted on Boeing’s website.
During the energy crisis of the 1970s, he advocated for the Boeing 737, a mid-range aircraft, rather than the more fuel-efficient and longer-range 757 and 767. A Fortune magazine article called the move “fortunate or prescient”, as the 737 subsequently became one of Boeing’s best-selling planes.
Shrontz led Boeing between 1986 and 1996, during which Boeing more than doubled its revenue to $35 billion.
He became chairman of the board in January 1988, then chairman emeritus on February 1, 1997, after retiring, according to his biography.
“We are deeply grateful to Frank Shrontz for his leadership and many years of service to the United States, the Puget Sound community and to Boeing. Our hearts go out to his family,” Boeing said in an email to Reuters.
The Mariners said Mr. Shrontz was a key member of the group of partners that took control of the Seattle Mariners in 1992.
“He was widely admired and respected in Seattle for his community work and his leadership of the Boeing Company, and his national and international reputation helped legitimize the new group in the eyes of Major League Baseball,” the Mariners said.
