James d'Orma Braman (born 1901)
Wikipedia đ James d'Orma Braman
James Braman Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Urban Systems and Environment
In office March 23, 1969 â 1970
President Richard Nixon
45th Mayor of Seattle
In office 1964â1969
Preceded by Gordon S. Clinton
Succeeded by Floyd C. Miller
Personal details
Born James d'Orma Braman December 23, 1901 Lorimor, Iowa, U.S.
Died August 21, 1980 (aged 78) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
James d'Orma "Dorm" Braman (December 23, 1901 â August 21, 1980)[1] was an American politician who served as the 45th mayor of Seattle, Washington from 1964 to 1969. To date, Braman was last Republican to serve as Mayor of Seattle.[2] Previously, mayors were elected for a term of four years, but because of a change in the date of election to odd-numbered years during his mayoral tenure, Braman served five and a half years.
Early life and education
He was born in Lorimor, Iowa, on December 23, 1901. As a child, Braman lived in Oklahoma before his family relocated to Pend Oreille County, Washington around 1908. He attended Union High School from 1916 to 1918, dropping out to work in the family lumber business.
Career
Braman worked in the lumber industry and also designed homes. In 1943, Braman served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy Reserve. Braman was based in Portland, Oregon and managed lumber procurement. In 1945, he was promoted to Commander and transferred to Washington, D.C. He returned to the Puget Sound region in 1946.
He was elected to the Seattle City Council, serving from 1954 until he became mayor in 1964.[3]
He was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon as Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Urban Systems and Environment in February 1969, resigning as mayor on March 23, 1969 to accept the position.[3][4][5]Braman resigned in 1970 and returned to Seattle after 18 months in the position.
Death
Braman died in Seattle on August 21, 1980 at the age of 79.[6]
Brief clip of Braman in a video (1968) -
1906 - The Braman Family moves to Bremerton, open sawmill
Source - Jacob Wesley Braman obituary - February 28, 1949 - https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/1999/02-28/0073_remember_when.html
- Jacob Wesley Braman, 90, pioneer Bremerton lumberman whose name is synonymous with the growth of Bremerton, died early this morning at his home, 1242 Eighth St.
- Mr. Braman, well-known throughout the area, came to Bremerton in 1906 and, through his business interests, was active in the development of the city.
- Upon arrival, he bought a sawmill at the present site of the Bremerton Lumber Co. He operated the mill for two years before selling it to the Port Blakely Mill Co [see https://portblakely.com/port-blakely/our-story for some of the company history]
- He continued with the firm for 20 years, serving as manager of line yards in Bremerton and Charleston.
Summary -
1906 - Jacob Wesley Braman (father of James d'Orma "Dorm" Braman ) moved to Bremerton, and upon arrival, he bought a sawmill at the present site of the Bremerton Lumber Co
This biography of James d'Orma "Dorm" Braman, Seattle City Council member beginning in 1954, and Seattle mayor from 1964 to 1969, was written by his son, Jim Braman.
Dorm Braman: Kitsap County Years
James d'Orma "Dorm" Braman was born in Lorimor, Iowa, on December 23, 1901. He moved with his family first to Oklahoma and then to the Pend Oreille valley of Eastern Washington circa 1908. His family moved to Bremerton in 1910, where his father, Jacob Wesley Braman, managed first a lumber mill and later a lumber retail store for the Port Blakely Mill Company.
Dorm attended Union High School from 1916 to 1918, dropping out of school late in his sophmore year to deliver lumber for new housing being build as a result of the World War I boom in Bremerton, site of the Puget Sound Navy Yard. With a neighbor chum, Dorm opened a small millwork plant in leased quarters on the Bremerton waterfront in 1919. After he became sole owner of the business, known as Braman Mill and Manufacturing Company, he moved it to larger quarters on 4th Street and in 1930 into a facility built for him at the corner of Pacific Avenue and 7th Street.
The new plant was large enough to accomodate up to 25 workers but unfortunately opened just as the slump of the Great Depression was being felt in Bremerton. Within several years, he was the sole employee. However, his reputation for high quality millwork permitted a build-up of employment as economic conditions eased. Ultimately, the Braman Mill provided millwork such as door and window frames, cabinets, and store fixtures for public and private buildings as far way as Bothell, north of Seattle.
Braman had married a Manette girl, Margaret Veroka Young, in 1902, and had two sons, James d'Orma, Jr. (b. 1925) and Robert Clifford (b. 1927). Although he had no training or experience as an architect, in 1936 he designed and built, with help of several sub-contractors, a large Norman-style home, one of the grandest in Bremerton. This home was registered as an historic landmark in 2000.
Braman served one term as Bremerton Port Commissioner and was instrumental in the approval of construction of the first ferry terminal in downtown Bremerton designed to handle automobiles. He was active in the Masonic Lodge and the Lions Club. The latter activity led him to Boy Scout work and he became scoutmaster of Troop 511 in 1937. During his six years of service, this troop became one of the most prestigious in the region. Fifty of the Troop 511 Scouts attained the rank of Eagle and the troop won most scouting competitions for several years. It once took first place in nine of 10 events at a county-wide field meet.
Braman again turned to his drawing board in designing Sundown Lodge, built by boys of his troop near the headwaters of the Tahuya River. This large and handsome facility served first the troop and eventually all the Kitsap District of the Boy Scouts of America for more than 40 years before vandalism dictated its demolition. Troop 511 also traveled widely in an old Fageol bus owned by the troop, ranging as far as Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks in 1939.
In 1943 Braman sought and obtained a commission as Lieutenant in the United States Naval Reserve. He handled lumber procurement for the Navy from an office in Portland and traveled extensively to lumber producers throughout the West. In 1945, after being promoted to the rank of Commander, he was assigned to the national headquarters of naval lumber procurement in Washington D.C. Braman was instrumental in revising the Navy Manual and in other actions required to carry out President Truman's mandate that lumber procurement for all armed forces be coordinated. He headed the new office responsible for such joint procurement until he resigned to return to the Pacific Northwest in 1946.
Seattle Years
After a brief stay in Bremerton, he moved to Seattle in 1946, where he purchased a lumber and building materials store in suburban Lake City. Braman Lumber and Hardware became an early example of a full-service home builder store, with sales of lumber, window glass, paint, appliances, housewares, and gifts. A cabinet shop was added in 1950. Dorm was active in the Lake City Kiwanis Club and was one of the founders of Shoreline Savings and Loan Association, which eventually opened branches in many Western Washington communities.
After a broad North End area, including Lake City, was annexed to Seattle in 1954, civic leaders in the area chose Braman to run for Seattle City Council. He ran a non-typical campaign, during which he praised Seattle's clean and business-like government. Dorm was elected with a greater number of votes than any of the four incumbents who were re-elected at the same election. During most of the ensuing ten years with Seattle City Council he was chairman of the powerful Finance Committee.
He was a hard-nosed, plain spoken legislator, tight-fisted in budgetary matters. He promoted use of the cumulative reserve fund, into which were deposited savings when City expenditures were less than revenues. This allowed building of some needed facilities without requiring voter approval of bond issues, a procedure that won praise from conservatives but was criticized by some others as a way to avoid seeking public approval of civic projects.
Braman ultimately became the City's representative on the World's Fair Commission responsible for constructing and operating the Century 21 Exposition in 1962. He served as a watchdog in the immediate post-fair period to assure that long-range plans developed before the fair were followed as the fairgrounds were transformed into Seattle Center. His use of the cumulative reserve fund to help in this effort received general support, but use of the same fund to build a new municipal building was controversial, especially since local architects criticized what they called the "Holiday Inn" look of the building.
Braman won two re-election races handily, but during the middle of his third four-year term on city council he was persuaded by backers to run for the office of mayor, since the incumbent had announced he would not seek a third term. He placed first among a large slate of contenders in the primary election of 1964, and defeated Lieutenant Governor John Cherberg in the final by a margin of nearly 12,000 votes. Because of a change in State law, his term was to run five and one-half years, and Braman announced upon election that he intended not to run for a second term. He said this would free him to make decisions based on what he considered best for the city, and not just on what would please the electorate.
There was some bitterness in the local minority community about Braman's election, because he had indicated his opposition to an open housing initiative, which was rejected by the voters at the same time as the mayoral election. Braman stated that his opposition was not based on the principle involved, but on specific provisions of the ordinance that he felt were too destructive of individual property owners' rights. He attempted, with partial success, to gain support of dissenters by appointing minority persons to several important positions, by strengthening the Human Rights Commission, and by establishing a Job Corps in which city departments hired minority youths during summers.
Braman, a life-long Republican, surprised many people, including some supporters, when he appointed several Democrats to key positions on his personal staff. This was followed by a change in attitude about seeking federal funds for local projects and activities. Whereas he had been skeptical about such funding as a councilman, he declared that as mayor he would do his best to get as much as possible of federal taxes paid by Seattleites back to the community. His words were followed by action, with Seattle being the first U.S. city to obtain a federal Model Cities grant. Federal funding for other projects also flowed into the city.
During the summer of 1968, when Seattle began to feel the urban unrest spreading through American cities, fueled at least in part by the Vietnam War, Braman visited African-American neighborhoods several times during periods when acts of violence were occurring, to the dismay of the police chief. One night during the height of the unrest he ordered that demonstrators threatening violence be arrested. He appeared at a local police station in the middle of that night to thank police for their resultant actions, which appeared to head off a potential riot.
Other significant progress was made during his five-year term. He threw City support behind the citizen-led Forward Thrust bond program, organized to gain support for facilities to serve the expected growth in metropolitan area population. The end result was voter approval of six major bond issues in 1968, constituting the largest bond program ever approved at a local level in the U.S.. Braman, however, was deeply disappointed that the rapid transit issue failed to gain the required 60 percent positive vote, although a majority of voters supported it.
Braman also worked to obtain from the federal government title to Fort Lawton and to assure that its site would be used park purposes. With support from the Washington State congressional delegation, particularly Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, this was accomplished, and the great majority of the area became Discovery Park, Seattle's largest park in acreage.
Braman had become increasingly convinced that comprehensive transit systems, including rail transit, integrated with land use planning was necessary to avoid future congestion in Seattle and other American cities. He became a national leader in the effort to obtain reliable federal support for transit, working closely with the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors to this end. Ultimately, this work led to his appointment by President Nixon early in 1969 to a newly created federal position, Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Urban Systems and Environment.
Working for Mass Transit in Washington D.C.
Braman had gained a reputation for straight talk, even blunt talk at times, and this and his many accomplishments during his short period in office resulted in widespread praise from the press and from civic and political leaders of both parties when he left Seattle for Washington, D.C. Local papers referred to him as the best mayor Seattle had ever had.
Braman went to Washington for two reasons. The foremost was to obtain a more stable source of federal funding for transit projects in general, and specifically for Seattle's proposed rapid transit system. Failure at the polls of the 1968 transit issue stemmed at least partly from lack of certainty of federal funding for the project. A secondary objective was to assure that environmental consequences of federally-supported transportation projects be considered more carefully in the decision-making process.
Braman had always been a pragmatic environmentalist. His experience with the Boy Scouts, followed by a lifetime love of skiing and hiking in his beloved Pacific Northwest mountains, gave him an appreciation of the natural environment. However, his experience in business and government lent a tempering influence on environmental controls so that they not be harsh enough to completely stop reasonable development. These factors influenced his performance in D.C.
Braman carried out his assignment there with the type of determination (some called it bull-headedness) that characterized his work in city government. Twice when he felt that important principles were being compromised for political reasons he told the Secretary of Transportation that he was going to resign and return to Seattle. Since he had the support of many local governmental and environmental groups, his resignation would have been political dynamite, and he ultimately prevailed both times.
Freeway projects in New Orleans and San Antonio that were potentially harmful to the urban environment were stopped, and ones in Memphis and New Hampshire substantially modified. Even more important in the long term, he succeeded in obtaining passage of legislation securing continuing federal funding for urban transit projects, even though the highway lobby and initially President Nixon himself opposed such legislation.
With 80 percent federal funding for Seattle's rapid transit assured, the matter was submitted to a new public vote. The timing was unfortunate, since the big "Boeing bust" of late 1969 was in full sway, and voters once again failed to approve the system, even though local taxpayers would cover only 20 percent of the total cost of the project. Funds earmarked for Seattle went to build Atlanta's rail system instead. Braman was discouraged by the result, and shortly later resigned his federal position and returned to Seattle in 1970. He received unusual praise from the Washington Post and other papers around the country for the great accomplishments during his 18 months in the position.
In Seattle, Braman resumed service on the Board of Directors of Shoreline Savings, served as President of the Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts, and for a short time was member of a national transportation advisory board. However, he never again was active in civic or political affairs. He remained physically vigorous, skiing and hiking until he died quietly in his sleep at home in 1980, at age 79.
1919 - marriage -
https://www.newspapers.com/image/174743763/?terms=Braman%2Blumber
Bremerton Lumber Co, in 1900s, operated in area of Highland Avenue in Bremerton, WA
http://archive.kitsapsun.com/news/local/bremerton-building-razed-for-park-expansion-ep-421483709-358373751.html
2008-11-13-kitsap-sun-bremerton-building-razed-for-park-expansion
Bremerton Building Razed for Park Expansion
Walkers on the path at Evergreen-Rotary park in Bremerton go past the building being torn down on Thursday. (LARRY STEAGALL | KITSAP SUN)
Walkers on the path at Evergreen-Rotary park in Bremerton go past the building being torn down on Thursday. (LARRY STEAGALL | KITSAP SUN)
Nov. 13, 2008
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By Christopher Dunagan
BREMERTON
A building on Highland Avenue, built in 1942 and recently used by the local Plumbers and Steamfitters Union, has been torn down to make way for a further expansion of Evergreen-Rotary Park.
Last year, Bremerton purchased the building and its .16 acres near the abandoned Chevron fuel facility, which is scheduled to undergo a final cleanup next summer, said Tom Knuckey, managing engineer for Bremerton Public Works.
When the project is completed, Sheldon Boulevard will continue onto Highland, and the existing extension of Highland will be incorporated into the park.
During the early part of the 1900s, the area was used as a lumber mill operated by the Bremerton Lumber Co., according to research by Western Shore Heritage Service, a consultant for the city. The old concrete building was built in 1942 as a machine shop. In the 1960s, fire gutted the building, which was repaired and later expanded. It was recently used for offices and welding classes.
When the demolition is complete, the site will become a gravel lot for overflow parking at Evergreen-Rotary Park, Knuckey said. Next summer, the site will be used to store contractor equipment during the cleanup of the Chevron property.
The Chevron site was scheduled for cleanup this past summer, but bids came in higher than anticipated, Knuckey said. The project will be rebid early next year.
Under current plans, soils will be removed on a portion of the Chevron site. The rest will be treated with special chemicals to oxidize the petroleum compounds so the resulting organic chemicals can be eaten by bacteria. The process will use heavy equipment to stir the soils while injecting the oxidation chemicals down to about 15 feet deep, Knuckey said.
On drawings of the future park, the Chevron property is designated as the terminus of the proposed Bremerton Boardwalk, an overwater structure that has drawn fire from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Suquamish Tribe and some environmental groups. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is reviewing an application for the boardwalk.
The demolition of the plumbers building, cleanup of the Chevron property and expansion of the park have no apparent opposition.
For a discussion about water-related issues, check out the blog Watching Our Water Ways at kitsapsun.com.
1942 - Braman Mill and Manufacturing Active in Bremerton
1942 Braman Mill address
https://www.fold3.com/image/649590995
611 Pacific Ave. , Bremerton
1957 - More Seattle tax revenue needed !
https://www.newspapers.com/image/564547099/?terms=braman%2Bseattle
1961 - Seattle 28 million dollar computer error
https://www.newspapers.com/image/568540513/?terms=braman%2Bseattle
1961 - space needle construction
https://www.newspapers.com/image/568489873/?terms=braman%2Bseattle
62 - Seattle Century 21 World's Fair
https://www.newspapers.com/image/570017459/?terms=braman%2Bseattle
64 - Baseball in Seattle?
https://www.newspapers.com/image/576914736/?terms=braman%2Bgates
1968 - Helping Seattle Pilots ?
https://www.seattlepi.com/sports/baseball/article/Where-Are-They-Now-Max-Soriano-1245289.php
NOMINATION OF HON. JAMES D. BRAMAN, MAYOR OF SEATTLE, WASH, TO BE AN ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
The CHAIRMAN. The next nomination, the Chair takes great pleasure in announcing this, is that of Mr. James D. Braman .# Washington to be Assistant Secretary of Transportation.
I want to tell the committee he isnât walking very well. He thinks he is a skier, and he forgot that he isnât as young as he used to be.
Senator CottoN. He had better Select some safer method of transportation.
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The CHAIRMAN. He had a little accident. That is why he couldnât be here on Monday. But, Mayor we are glad to have you here, and we will put your biography in the record in full.
(Biography of Mr. Braman follows:)
JAMES DâORMA BRAMAN
Born December 23, 1901, Seattle, Wash.
The President of the United States has nominated Mr. J. D. Braman to be an Assistant Secretary of the Department of Transportation. Mr. Braman will serve as Assistant Secretary for Urban Systems and Environment. In this capacity, he will be the Secretaryâs principal staff adviser on urban transportation affairs and on the relationships of transportation programs to the social and physical environment. His sphere of staff responsibility will include review and planning of transportation programs in the urban areas, coordination of the Department's urban programs with those of other Federal, state and local agencies, and development of programs to assure that environmental factors are given their full weight in all transportation decision-making.
Mr. Braman has been Mayor of Seattle, Washington, since 1964. For the preceding ten years he had been a member of the Seattle City Council and served as Chairman of its Budget and Finance Committee from 1956 to 1964.
During this period he was the City's representative on Washington State World's Fair Commission and Century 21, Inc., in developing and staging the 1962 Seattle Worldâs Fair, the âCentury 21 Exposition.â He handled the redevelopment of the Fair site into the present spectacular âSeattle Center.â
Mr. Braman has extensive experience in the subject areas of the position for which he has been nominated. He has been Chairman and Board member of the Transportation Committee Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (METRO), which now is completing a $150 million water pollution control program and which is responsible for transportation system development. He is an Executive Board member of the Puget Sound Governmental Conference, a four-country land and transportation planning agency, and of the Puget Sound Regional Air Pollution Control Agency. He is Chairman of the Transportation Committee of the National League of Cities, also representing in this capacity the United States Conference of Mayors, of which he is also an Advisory Council member.
He has served on the Urban Transportation Advisory Council of the Department of Transportation and on the President-Elect's Task Force on Transportation.
Before coming to public service in Seattle, Mr. Braman had a distinguished business career as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Braman Lumber & Hardware Co. of Seattle from 1946 to 1956 and President and Manager of the Braman Mill & Manufacturing Co., Inc., of Bremerton, Washington, from 1929 to 1943. During World War II, Mr. Braman served as a commissioned officer in the Navy Supply Corps and was responsible for procurement of all West Coast lumber needed by the Navy and later was in charge of all Navy lumber programs.
Mr. Braman has been President of the Lake City Chamber of Commerce of Seattle, President of the Associated Lumber Dealers of Seattle and of the Seattle Retail Hardware Association, and from 1940 to 1943, President of the Bremerton Port Commission. He has been active in Boy Scouting since 1932 and holds the Silver Beaver Award. He has been affiliated with Masons, Scottish Rite Bodies, Shrine, American Legion, Kiwanis, Urban League, Seattle Chamber of Commerce, Municipal League, Central Association of Seattle, and the Y.M.C.A.
Mr. Braman is an active outdoors sportsman. He is married to the former Margaret W. Young and has two sons and three grandchildren.
The CHAIRMAN. He has had some extensive experience in all forms of urban problems, urban systems, and urban environment and transit problems, and I think the Department of Transportation is very fortunate in being able to have him come down there and work on these particular problems which are so important to the country. So, I welcome you here as a fellow citizen of mine at home.
STATEMENT BY Hon. HENRY M. JACKSON, U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF WASHINGTON
Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you and the members of the Senate Commerce Committee for availing to me this opportunity to speak in behalf of the distinguished nominee for the position of Assistant Secretary of Transportation, Mayor J. Dorm Braman of Seattle.
Dorm Braman has been an excellent mayor for the past five years. Prior to that time, he served for ten years with great distinction as a member of the Seattle City Council.
When Secretary Wolpe announced a few weeks ago the selection of Mayor Braman as Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Urban Systems and Environment, I said then that it was an excellent marriage of the man and the job.
I commend Secretary Wolpe for creating this position within his department to deal with the total urban problem as it relates to transportation and in addition the question of the quality of the environment.
I congratulate the Secretary on his choice of Mayor Braman, who has taken such a keen and contributing interest in our nation's transportation problems through his role as Chairman of the Transportation Committee of the National League of Cities. And, as he evidenced on many occasions, he knows and cares about the urgency of improving and preserving the quality of the environment.
Early in the 90th Congress, it was my role to serve as floor manager of the bill creating the Department of Transportation. Since then I have watched the development of this department with great interest. In drafting the legislation, we specifically provided for certain safeguards covered in Section 4âF and 2âBâ2 guaranteeing that the new department would establish appropriate environmental criteria. As Chairman of the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, I have been keenly interested in this entire field. Only recently I introduced legislation calling for a Council of Environmental Advisors in the Executive Office of the President which could advise the President on this great and complex problem area that crosses the bounds of many departments of government.
I want to say that I am heartened that the questions of environment involving the Department of Transportation will be in the hands of such a sensitive and knowledgeable person as Mayor Braman.
It reassures everybody that such a vigorous proponent of balanced transportation systems is placed in a position where he can contribute to national policy.
And it is most encouraging to see a man with such a keen appreciation of conservation and environmental values appointed to this key position.
I believe a recent comment of my colleague, the Chairman of this Committee, is most appropriate. The Chairman said: âMayor Braman understands that the need for new technology must be balanced with the need for a safe and human environment.â
Mr. Chairman, as you well know, the elevation of Mayor Braman to this national office is a worthwhile development for our nation. However, we will miss the excellent counsel and assistance he provided to us as Mayor of Seattle. Our ability to work hand in hand with the Mayor on matters of deep concern to Seattle was in the finest spirit of bipartisan cooperation.
He has been a progressive mayor. Under his leadership, Seattle obtained the first model city program in the United States to be approved and funded. He is one of the nation's pioneers in the design team concept for community planning which takes into account human values as well as traditional technical considerations. As a councilman he was a chief spokesman of the city government in bringing about the highly successful Seattle World's Fair which has resulted in a magnificent on-going community center.
I am happy, Mr. Chairman, to urge Senate confirmation of Mayor Braman so that he can began his important work in the executive branch of the government.
We of the State of Washington are proud of his past accomplishments. We look forward to sharing his talents with the nation.
The CHAIRMAN. This office to which you have been named, and I have discussed this with the Secretary, too, Secretary Volpe, is considered a new one in the Department of Transportation. That is not particularly unusual because the Department of Transportation is new itself. It is a new Cabinet office. If you have come to some conclusions, it would be helpful to the committee if you would briefly provide an outline of what you conceive it to be and the organizational structure of your office as Assistant Secretary.
Mr. BRAMAN. Thank you, Senator Magnuson and gentlemen of the committee.
First, let me say I appreciate your kind remarks and your explanation of the rather halting way in which I approached the table. I do enjoy skiing and for the first time in 25 years I had a very untimely accident just before having to come down here.
I have prepared a very short statement.
The CHAIRMAN. We will be glad to hear that.
Mr. BRAMAN. Then, I will be very happy to respond to your questions.
The Office of Assistant Secretary for Urban Systems and Environment is a new one in the Department of Transportation, which has been created by Secretary Volpe because of his deep concern about the problems of metropolitan America. He is resolved to make certain that urban policies which emanate from his department will be re viewed and reconciled by this new office.
For the past 15 years, I have been intimately involved in municipal government. The first 10 years were spent as a member of the Seattle City Council, where, as chairman of the finance committee, I was required to cope with the fiscal dilemma, one which practically all cities
aceâthat of increased demands for services with limited resources available. In 1964 I became mayor of Seattle. Since that time, our community has shared with others the agonies of swiftly moving social change. We have been fortunate by contrast with some of our sister cities, but, like in Alice in Wonderland, we have had to run awfully hard to stay in the same place. We in Seattle are proud of the community support we have been able to develop, with concerned citizens representing a broad spectrum of our city. The fact that our model city effort was the first in the United States to be approved and funded is national recognition of the success of our efforts to get meaningful local citizen participation.
I want to acknowledge the wise counseling of our two illustrious Senators, your chairman, Warren G. Magnuson and the chairman of the Senate Interior Committee, Henry M. Jackson. These gentlemen have always been available for counseling, and I am afraid we in Seattle have taken unfair advantage of their accessibility. They have been a tower of strength to me in discharging my responsibilities as mayor. I sincerely hope that I will be able from time to time to continue to benefit from their advice. I welcome, of course, the advice and counseling of all members of this committee.
In addition to my other responsibilities, I am serving on the advisory board of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, on the executive board of the National League of Cities, and for the last 3 years have also served as chairman of the transportation committee of that organization. In the latter role, I have had an opportunity to become informed on urban transportation problems in other sections of our country.
This has given me an opportunity to develop a national perspective.
In addition to speaking before many of the nationally recognized transportation organizations, I have had the privilege of testifying on several occasions before committees of the U.S. §. as well as committees of the House of Representatives.
In my city administration, I have assigned No. 1 priority to the resolution of our transportation problems. The crisis of urban America will not be solved by a balanced transportation system, but until all citizens have full access to their community, we cannot hope to achieve a permanent solution to our social problems.
I have sensed a growing awareness by all elements of our society that the old ground rules were no longer valid. New concerns were involved when we started constructing transportation facilities in our more densely populated urban areas. Citizens have, with increasing vigor, demanded that the views of all those affected be heard.
The problem has two elements: (1) the need to develop a transportation system for urban areas wherein the components will complement each other rather than be competitive, and (2) that appropriate attention be give to the human values which are affectedâa concern about improving the quality of our environment.
The mission of the Assistant Secretary for Urban Systems and Environment will be to coordinate the policies, programs and resources of the Department of Transportation with public and private efforts to Solve urban and environmental problems; to develop and test new procedures, techniques and methods by which transportation development can be made more relevant to urban and environmental needs and goals; and generally to make the offices and agencies within the Department more responsive to the needs of cities and more sensitive to the protection and enhancement of the environment.
Secretary Volpe has designated the office for which I have been nominated to be the focal point within the Department for the resolution of questions as between the various modes, such as highway, rail, buses, and air, where they are part of the urban complex. In addition, the office will have the challenging responsibility of being concerned about the quality of the environment wherever transportation has any impact.
I approach #. assignment with the knowledge that the challenges are great and the solutions are debatable. I do feel that my previous experience and my enthusiasm for this assignment will enable me to make a contribution.
That concludes my prepared remarks. I will attempt to answer any
questions that you may care to ask.
The CHAIRMAN. I think you generally outlined in your last two
paragraphs what you conceive in a broad way what this new office
will do.
65
I know that you canât be very definitive about many of these things
because you have to start out down there new as far as the Depart
ment is concerned, and the Department itself is just beginning to feel
its way. It was just created, as you know, a short time ago. I think
when you talk about the environmental needs and goals, that all of this
has got to fit into a pattern such as we have tried to do in Seattle, and
we were honored by the model cities the first month, involving so many
other things than just one phase, say of transportation.
I think you have sensed the feeling of this committee in that respect,
because we are going to have a subcommittee of this committee, which
will be new for us, although we have been around the periphery of all
these things, on that very thing, environmental approaches to the
problems of the urban population. -
You mentioned the old rules may not apply. Surely, your concept of
this is in tune with the times, in my opinion.
Senator Cotton, do you have any questions?
Senator Cotton. No. I have listened to the colloquy that you have
had with Mr. Braman, and I would say that if you want him and the
President wants him that the rest of us would be wasting our breath to
try to stop it, so I am for it.
I will be very happy to vote for your confirmation. I have no
questions.
The CHAIRMAN. Senator Spong.
Senator SPONG. Mr. Chairman, it has been my privilege to hear
Mayor Braman when he has testified before the Roads Subcommittee
of the Public Works Committee during the 90th Congress. I would
like to add to what you have already said. I believe the Department is
most fortunate to have a man of his experience.
I would like to say in observing the mayor's statement the statement
that âthere is a need to develop a transportation system for urban areas
wherein the components will complement each other rather than be
competitiveâ that I wish him well.
I think one of the very apparent problems everywhereâand it is probably no more apparent than right here in the Washington metropolitan areaâis the unfortunate uncompetitiveness between those who build highways and want highways and freeways and those who recognize the need for a mass transit system, when in effect here, as
I am sure in many other places, both are going to be necessary.
I would also like to say I am delighted that we are going to pay some attention to the environmental factors in transportation.
. I would like to ask Mayor Braman if you have any comment on the regulations recently adopted with regard to hearings in the condemnation of property under eminent domain proceedings that the Department of Transportation recently enacted.
Mr. BRAMAN. This has been referred to as the two-hearing procedure. The fact of the matter is in many State jurisdictions this has been in effect to a degree, but the timing hasn't been quite as contemplated by the Department regulation. I personally support a regulation of this type. Certainly, many of us have some questions relative to the appeal procedure that was written into it, and I believe to some degree that has already been corrected.
As far as the procedure of having the hearings, a corridor hearing early, before anything has become fixed in the minds of the designers,
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I think it is the approach to reaching the community problem that seems to be developing every time a major facility is planned in an urban area. Then, of course, later when we get to What is known as the access hearing, which comes more to the actual design, the configuration of the interchanges and things of that nature, then, again, the community should be heard. Contrary to some statements that have been made that this will delay the process of construction to a degree that will work to the public harm rather than good, I don't subscribe to this. I believe that having gotten these things out of the way at the proper time will actually accelerate the ultimate construction rather than delay it.
In our own city, for example, we have a major construction item that was proposed to have gotton underway some year and a half to 2 years ago, and it is still nowhere near starting because of the almost overwhelming public protest on the fact that it had been designed in such a manner it destroyed a large amount of very valuable property but more importantly it impacted very heavily on our minority or less privileged community. The result is we are going to end up in my opinion with a considerable longer delay than would have resulted had we gotten to where we are now through the model cities procedure where I think we are going to come to an amicable conclusion of this.
I believe it is a good regulation with some modification of the appeal.
enator Spong. Thank you very much. I certainly look forward to hearing fom you some more.
The CHAIRMAN. The Senator from Wyoming.
Senator HANSEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am pleased to be here today to hear from you, Mayor Braman. I wanted to say that as a member of the Special Committee on Aging and some other committee work I have done I do have some sensitivity for minority groups, and I think it has been demonstrated repeatedly that the full economic impact and the full economic loss cannot be assessed as easily as one might suspect. Oftentimes the location of a road can shut off or can cut off from a merchant his clientele. It may be a little neighborhood store and it may be a particular ethnic group has patronized his store, and if he is separated from those to whom he has looked for the major share of his income, he may not have had his building touched at all and yet he has suffered a real and very substantial economic loss.
I think, too, that older people oftentimes, as we uproot them and move them someplace else, we do great violence to them. We move them from their friends, from their acquaintances, and these are difficult things to put a price tag on. So, I would hope as we get on with the job of trying to improve our transportation system, to modernize it, and to make it so as to be more equal to the task that it faces that we might also have in mind that because a blighted area is run down, it may seem to be a logical place to root out and use for a transportation system, in terms of human values that may not be the best place. It may be that you could put it someplace else and that the people who thus would be uprooted would be far more able to adiust themselves to the impact than some of those that we would consider to be in very low income status and would agree on the basis of other criteria to be a logical place for highway extensions.
These are just ideas that I wanted to toss out that I hope you might give consideration to. I have every reason to believe that you will.
Mr. BRAMAN. Senator, I concur fully in the remarks that you have made. I would like to point out that the basis of the kind of design that I hope will become common throughout the country is the design team concept which includes not only the engineering designer but also the urban design concept and the economists, sociologists, the architects, so in fact we get to the total cost of a project which includes the non quantity values that you have mentioned.
We have been inclined to go only on economics, what it will cost to lay a strip of concerte or rail or what have you from a point to a point to serve a purpose, but we have failed to recognize the nonquantity costs which are very important, which now as we get into this more deeply, into the consideration of human values, must be added to the measurable costs.
I agree fully with what you have said, sir.
Senator HANSEN. I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman.
The CHAIRMAN. That brings me to a question that I am going to ask the mayor. I am sure you feel that whatever your jurisdiction down there will be in these urban problems, that it extends beyond just a city boundary, the city limits, that it is a conglomeration of things all around it, it has all got to fit into an area.
I was thinking of my friend from Virginia who down in the Norfolk area, the city boundaries donât mean anything.
Senator SPONG. We are all connected by tunnels. There are so many I think we are moles at times.
The CHAIRMAN. They have a transportation problem which includes water, too. When you talk about saying you will be involved in something in his area, you can't just use city boundaries for the environment, you have got to use the whole thing, and the same thing in a sparsely settled State like Wyoming.
I am sure even though you are mayor of a city, your responsibilities go way beyond the city limits.
Mr. BRAMAN. That is correct.
The CHAIRMAN. Not your political responsibilities, but your others.
Mr. BRAMAN. No, the responsibility to the public you serve is broader than the city limits. I would say that the whole basis of the plans which we hope to develop for urban transportation are based on regions rather than on political jurisdictions. The plan must be a locally developed plan to serve a region after which we must find ways to implement it and make it come into being.
The CHAIRMAN. The quicker the cities start to think in those terms in planning, which I think we have been in the forefront out there, the more we are going to reach some solutions.
The Senator from Pennsylvania is so familiar with this. The problem of Philadelphia is not the city limits of Philadelphia.
Senator Scott. No, sir; it is not. Philadelphia County and Philadelphia City are coterminus, but our traffic, transportation, and population mode is regional. Yet, the counties are often very jealous of any Âșal proposals. However, we surely are coming to that sort of
1ng.
The CHAIRMAN. Now, the problem, of course, in the heart of the urban areas is to try to coordinate the various modes of transportation,
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whether they be underground or surface or rapid transit or elevators, such as our monorail even in our own hometown. But it is a big job, and I am so pleased that the Secretary has seen fit to make this a special project and a special office which you are going to take hold of.
Senator Scott, do you have any other questions?
Senator Scott. I donât think so, Mr. Chairman.
The CHAIRMAN. Senator Moss.
Senator Moss. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I donât think I have any questions of the mayor. I wish him well. I know something of his distinguished career in Seattle, and I am most happy that you are assuming this position which, as this colloquy has developed here, is of growing importance and complexity in the areas around our great cities. It isn't the cities only but it is all of the metropolitan area or even beyond that which may include several political jurisdictions and as such offers knotty problems in that regard that must be resolved.
So, I am pleased indeed with your nomination, and I know that you will do a fine job.
Mr. BRAMAN. Thank you
Mr. Chairman, if I might comment along the lines of the last two or three remarks. Actually, the problem is a regional one. Certainly, the coordination of modes of transportation is important in developing a regional plan, and this plan must be developed locally because of the different conditions that exist at different localities. For example, cities like New York, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and many others have a geographical and topographical situation because of waterways, hills, and so forth, that give them an entirely different problem than the Plains cities such as Phoenix and Denyer, et cetera.
So we must have a way to get away from the competition between highways and other modes and find a way in which all of them can serve their best and highest purpose in a total plan. It may be some areas that for one or two decades it will largely be based on §Âș
In other areas such as ours there has to be a mix on perhaps a one-third/two-thirds basis of some type of mass transportation coupled with highways. The point I want to make very clear is my purpose in my past activities as well as approaching this new assignment is not an attack on highways per se. I think that all of these modes have a proper place.
I think we have to be reasonable in our approaches. But I think we have to have a better approach to make sure that each serves its purpose in relation to the other so that ultimately we come up with the maximum with the least damage, though there will always be some damage when you construct major facilities of this type.
Senator CottoN. I am very much interested in this discussion. I hope that in your laudable desire to coordinate the various forms of transportation you are going to carefully protect and guard our Interstate Highway System until it is completed. I was on the Public Works Committee years ago when that project was passed through the Congress. We fought for it. We lost in our committee the first year by one vote. We passed it through the Senate the second year by one vote. I think if the Senate voted once more on it, it would be almost unanimous.
Yet, from time to time, with the best motives in the world, people want to keep dipping into the trust fund for not extraneous purposes
but some particular purpose that delays the completion of the Interstate System. To me an uncompleted Interstate System is just like a bridge with one span out of it. It is not quite as bad as that, but I think it is important that we complete that system as laid out before we start adding to it and before we start diverting any funds anywhere else.
I wonder if you feel that way?
Mr. BRAMAN. I certainly do. I have always taken the position in all of my activities in the field of transportation that the Interstate Highway System, I think, is one of the great monuments of the past decade in public works. I certainly agree that the Interstate System which has made it possible to connect our urban areas across the Plains and the mountains with fine highways has been a great achievement and it must be completed. There must be provision made to continue to updateâupdate and maintain it after it is completed.
I think as we approach the next phase, postinterstate, as I call it, we must determine how these funds still devoted for the purpose of providing right-of-way for rubber-tired vehicles can be best used in
Solving the next phase which is the internal problem in the urban areas, and at no point have we advocated either abolishing this fund or diverting funds out of it for other purposes, because we foresee more needs in this field than could ever be met even out of all the funds that are available. But there must be a way provided to give the same type of assured financing to the other modes so that when you plan a total system you don't have an assured method of constructing a portion of it and not the other, which means the system will never be constructed.
Senator CoTTON. I realize that, and I realize that is the need of the hour now as it was the need of the hour 10 or 12 years ago when we started this system. The need of the hour now is just what you are talking about, of course: the urban problem. I am sure that you are the ideal person to undertake this. -
Everybody now has some route that they want to add to the Interstate System. In the name af beautification or something else, everyone wants to add to the system before it is completed and laid out.
Everybody has pet projects on safety or beautification or something ...that is highly laudible but they want to divert some of the trust
S.
I know that your great challenge will be urban transportation and opening up the cities, but I am reassured when you tell us that you are not going to let that interfere with the completion of this Interstate System as it was laid out. Then comes the problem of who gets what priorities, and you are better versed in that than we are. -
Mr. BRAMAN. Senator, I can assure you that this is directly in line with my thinking, and I believe as far as I am privileged to state for the other cities, who are affiliated in the league, that this is thought as well. We must complete the Interstate System. You will note I have always used the term âpostinterstate.â In other words, we must complete the Interstate System, and I agree with you we should be very cautious about indiscriminate additions to the system. We have to complete the system, we have to provide for its maintenance and some degree of improvement, which means some, where needed, minor extensions, but I think we need to direct our attention postinterstate to the other commanding problems of the metropolitan communities.
Senator CottoN. Of course, when I come down to see you in a month or two representing my State and asking you to be in favor of one new little highway on this Interstate System, you are going to know exactly what to say to me.
Mr. BRAMAN. I left a little loophole there, if you noted, with some moderate increases perhaps
Senator Scott. Mayor Braman, are you familiar with the history of our suburban transit in the Philadelphia area where passenger fares have actually been substantially reduced, in a typical instance from 60 to 35 cents, with about 35 cents round trip on our Penn Central and Reading Railways, and that, as you know, was done by assistance from the cities to the transit company, perhaps from the State, and perhaps to a degree from the Federal Government, but fundamentally it was a city-assisted program? I assume you are aware that as a result of that many people who formerly drove their auto mobiles into townâthis includes myselfâwill now leave the automobile at a parking spot alongside a suburban railway station and ride in in comfort. This isn't the Long Island Railway, so we ride in comparative comfort.
You are familiar with the success of that operation, are you not?
Mr. BRAMAN. I am to a limited degree, Senator. I am not intimately informed on it. I do know of it, and I might say that as part of the Transportation Committee of the National League of Cities I have had the pleasure of having Mr. Edward Tennyson from your city as one of my members. He has been very helpful.
Senator Scott. I am glad that you are in consultation with him.
This was brought about by former Mayor Dilworth, of Philadelphia, who is entitled to the credit for having thought of this imaginative thing.
Are you familiar with the opportunities offered to General Electric and Grumman to bid on a prototype of a cushioned-track vehicle primarily, I understand, for transportation in the 300- to 500-mile range to supplement the short-run air carriers?
Mr. BRAMAN. Senator, I am only aware of these new proposed programs for innovative forms of transportation in a broad sense. Actually, within the Department under another Assistant Secretarv will be the Department of Research and Development which would have cognizance of that type of thing. -
Actually, the design of a system to use would fall in my area of Concern.
The CHAIRMAN. But supposing they think this is a good design or something new, I envision that they have got to come and clear with your place âDoes it fit in 7â
Mr. BRAMAN. This is what I am referring to, the design of a system using any mode would be under my concern. The development of innovative new procedures would be theirs.
Senator Scott. This cushioned-track vehicle, I believe the present planning is for a test area, and there is competition for it from Texas and Colorado and New Jersey for a 48- or 60-square-mile area to test out these cushion-track trains.
The only operating train I know of on a test track of about 20 miles is the Pitin from Paris to Orleans.
The CHAIRMAN. We have the monorail.
Senator Scott. I know you have the monorail. This is an air cushioned system.
Mr. BRAMAN. Is it an air-cushioned system, Senator?
Senator SCOTT. It is an air-cushioned system and is said to be very quiet and extremely fast. It can maintain speeds of 300 miles an hour, and its potential is 500.
Now, I have bad news for the Senator from New Hampshire. The tell me with the institution of the cushioned-track vehicle, if adopted, the suburbanite will have his home in New Hampshire and work in New York and that this will be an hour's ride. So, I just want the Senator from New Hampshire to get ready to become
Mr. BRAMAN. I think the air-cushioned vehicle, particularly a track vehicle, is probably the one that has the greatest potential of being attractive at this time that they tell me.
Senator Scott. The engineers tell me of all the various proposals, the tunnel, the air-push type of tunnel, the monorail, the overhead, and all the rest of them, that the air-cushioned, single-track vehicle is probably the most feasible, and I do hope you will encourage development on that.
Mr. BRAMAN. We are going to have an entire office devoted to that, and I am sure all of us are going to be much concerned about it in the Department. I think there is one thing we have to remember that we have some demanding problems existing at the moment in our cities. For instance, rail lines, such as you have mentioned, can be converted to serve that way. Some have no such ability. We have none in Seattle that can serve that way. We are getting to the point as they develop the right kind of plan and the local support and, hopefully, additional F. support, we will have to construct something. I donât think we can ever wait for the quantum system. In other words, there will come a time when we will use the best thing available and we will go ahead and contstruct knowing that just around the corner will probably be something better.
The only thing we can do is to try to design the system we do con struct to make it adaptable to the broadest scale of new development.
For instance, tunnels should be so designed to suit air-cushioned tracks and what have you. I think you have to get to the point where you have to make up your mind we have to go ahead and build something, no matter what the future would hold.
The CHAIRMAN. I would say the No. 1 priority also in every big urban center today in the United States is easy access to their airport.
Mr. BRAMAN. Yes; right.
Senator Scott. Cleveland is the great example of that.
The CHAIRMAN. This is what they want most of all right now, if they donât have it. This has got to fit into the Interstate System, but this is almost a No. 1 priority with people.
Mr. BRAMAN. It ties in directly with the concern about airports and airline operation.
The8. This committee is going to have to labor with that problem very soon, what to do about the airport situation, and that involves access, ingress, and egress to the airports.
Look at your problem of air Âș: which is going up like this. Are you going to run big trucks out to the passenger airport terminals, and things like that. It all fits into what your job is going to be.
Mr. BRAMAN. That is right. Actually, we must get to the pointâ this thing extends itself step by step. We get to the construction of airports and terminals. In our city, Senator, there now is, as you know, under construction a 5,000-car parking garage, an excavation some what reminiscent of the Grand Canyon, and at the moment because of lack of funds or means by which a coordinated plan could have been developed, this new installation contains no provision for a rail terminal. It should have provisions not only for the rail terminal, but the automated handling of baggage and freight, but it doesn't.
We have got to get to the point where these things are not built without consideration of the other facilities.
The CHAIRMAN. You have got a big challenge down there.
Senator Scott. Mr. Chairman, you have got a lot of witnesses, and I donât want to delay, but I would also like to suggest to you a fascinating experiment that was tried out at Philadelphia airport. I saw the television demonstration of it. They take one of these very large helicopters, and it is equipped to reach down and grab a busload of passengers downtown. Then the helicopter and bus all together go popping across the atmosphere, and in a few minutes they land right at the airport, drop the bus, and the bus tottles off to the passenger depot, and the helicopter goes back and grabs itself another bus. It is very fascinating.
Mr. BRAMAN. Senator Magnuson kind of shuddered at that thought, but actually there is nothing so fantastic that it doesnât contain some possibility if we go far enough out into the future. So this could have
Some merit if we develop this thing.
Senator Scott. I hope it doesnât develop bad habits and start grabbing automobiles.
Mr. BRAMAN. That is right.
The CHAIRMAN. If there are no further questions, we would like to
thank you very much.
Mr. BRAMAN. I would like to make one closing remark. As previously stated, this is a new office. Secretary Wolpe has chosen to take some duties out of one of the established offices and put them in other offices in order to open up a place for this operation. We have nothing to start to work with. We are going to have to develop from scratch.
We can't promise results too early because we have a whole structural organization to develop.
I would hope as time goes on and as I and others in the Department come to the Senate and to the House for support, that we will have your understanding as we try to find answers to these problems. It is going to take a great deal of understanding and support by all of us in the Government if we are going to solve this problem. Thank you very much.
The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much.
King Olav V of Norway visits Seattle area from May 1 to May 4, 1968.
https://www.historylink.org/File/2031
Braman + Governor Evans
- By David Wilma
- Posted 1/10/2000
- HistoryLink.org Essay 2031
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From May 1 to 4, 1968, Norway's King Olav V (1903-1991) makes his third visit, and first as king, to the Seattle area. At every stop he is greeted enthusiastically by large crowds, many of them from the region's substantial Norwegian American community, and the king declares that he "feels more at home in Seattle than in any other United States city" ("King Olav's Visit ...").
Olav, whose full name was Alexander Edward Christian Frederik of Gluksburg, had visited Western Washington twice as Crown Prince. In 1939 he and his wife, Princess Martha (1901-1954), spent a day skiing at Paradise on Mount Rainier and attended the dedication of the Toftezen (or Taftezon) Memorial in Stanwood, Snohomish County, which honored the first Norwegian settler on Puget Sound. During a 1942 visit, Olav explained Norway's position as a country occupied by German troops.
In 1968, Seattle was just one stop on the Norwegian monarch's tour of the United States. King Olav arrived from San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon May 1 and had dinner that evening at the Rainier Club with Governor Daniel J. Evans (b. 1925) and Mayor Dorm Braman (1901-1980).
On Thursday, May 2, the king visited the University of Washington College of Fisheries, a group of demonstrators waited for the king with signs reading "Scandinavia Unite as a Neutral Republic" and scuffled with another group of students who tore up their signs. The king did not see the confrontation.
Also on Thursday, Olav attended a ceremony at the statue of Leif Erikson at the Port of Seattle's Shilshole Bay Marina, greeted retirees at the Norse Home, watched sea otters at the Woodland Park Zoo, and ate lunch at the Space Needle. At the Norway Center, he listened to the Ballard High School Band and the Issaquah High School Chorus and said, "It is fine that you are able to keep these (Norwegian) traditions as a living thing ... and blend them as part of the American way of life" (Post-Intelligencer). That night the king attended a banquet in his honor at the Olympic Hotel.
On Friday, May 3, King Olav returned to the Cascade Mountains, making a trip to the Crystal Mountain ski area. He rode a chair lift to the resort's Summit House and admired the view of nearby Mount Rainier, where he had skied 29 years before. That evening he had a private dinner with family friends who lived in Bellevue. The next morning, Olav departed for Minneapolis.
King Olav made another visit to the Puget Sound region in 1975, celebrating the sesquicentennial of Norwegian immigration to America with a visit to Poulsbo, located in Kitsap County and nicknamed "Little Norway" for its large Norwegian American population.
1967 - working with governor evans for US Olympic bid in 1976
https://www.flickriver.com/photos/shookphotos/31156310500/
William McPherson Allen (The Boeing Company), Boeing's 50th Anniversary Banquet, July 16, 1966
Production Date: July 16, 1966
Source Type: Photograph
Printer, Publisher, Photographer: Unknown
Postmark: Not Applicable
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark: Guests at the head table at the civic banquet marking Boeing's first half century included, from left, William P. Woods of the civic committee and Mrs. Woods; C. L. Egtvedt, retired Boeing chairman and Mrs. Egtvedt; William M. Allen, Boeing president; Mrs. Juan J. Trippe, wife of the chairman of Pan American World Airways; Trippe, Mrs. William M. Allen; Gov. Daniel J. Evans, Mrs. J. D. Braman and Mayor Braman. Other head-table guests were not pictured. Guests were welcomed by the governor and the mayor.
William McPherson Allen was born September 1, 1900, in Lolo, Montana. After earning a degree at the University of Montana, he enrolled at Harvard University where he earned a degree on law in 1925. In 1930, Allen joined the board of directors of Boeing Air Transport while being employed as an attorney with Donworth, Todd & Higgins, a Seattle law firm.
The unexpected death of Boeing president Philip G. Johnson in 1944 required that Boeing's chairman of the board, Claire Egtvedt, appoint a replacement. Egtvedt turned to Bill Allen, who initially refused to accept the position because he felt that he was unqualified to head the company. Allen, however, later accepted the position and served as the Chief Executive Officer (President) of The Boeing Company from September 1, 1945, to April 29, 1968. He then served as chairman of the company from 1968 to 1972.
Under William M. Allen's leadership, The Boeing Company launched the Boeing 367-80 (Dash 80), a jet-powered passenger airplane and the predecessor of the Boeing 707. Allen was also responsible for the development and launch of the Boeing 727, Boeing 737, and Boeing 747.
William M. Allen died on October 28, 1985. In 2003, an article published in Fortune ranked William McPherson Allen second among "The 10 Greatest CEOs of All Time," the top CEO being Charles Coffin, the founder of General Electric Company.
Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. This image and associated text may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Steven R. Shook.
1911
Buena Vista farm
https://www.newspapers.com/image/568059655/?terms=braman%2Bbremerton