Edward W. Stimpson papers, 1934-2009

Edward W. (Watts) Stimpson was born June 18, 1934 in Bellingham, Washington, the first of seven children to Dr. Edward K. and Catharine C. “Kitty” Stimpson. He attended the Campus School at Western Washington College of Education from 1940 to 1949, and graduated salutatorian from Bellingham High School in 1952. He went on to graduate cum laude from Harvard College in 1956 with a bachelor of arts in government and received a master of public administration from the University of Washington in 1959.

Immediately after graduation Stimpson went to work for the upcoming Seattle World’s Fair (the “Century 21 Exhibition,”) as assistant to the president and general manager. The following March he was assigned to serve as the Fair’s representative in Washington D.C. Following the opening of the Fair on April 21, 1962, Stimpson’s responsibilities included escorting VIP visitors to Seattle. After the Fair’s closure (October 21, 1962) Stimpson became acting director of the Pacific Science Center, overseeing its conversion from the Fair’s United States Science Pavilion.

Stimpson met two individuals while working at the Fair whose impact would be lifelong: these were his future wife and fellow-Fair employee, Dorothy (Dottie) Sortor and Najeeb Halaby, a VIP visitor who would initiate his career in aviation. Halaby – the head and Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) – invited Stimpson to work with him. In December 1962 he began his position as the FAA’s Congressional Relations Officer, and in July 1965 was named Assistant Administrator of the FAA’s Congressional Liaison Office.

Stimpson left the FAA at the end of 1969, co-founded the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) on January 1, 1970, and the next day married Dorothy (Dottie) Sorter. Originally named as vice president of GAMA, Stimpson was elected president in October 1970. Stimpson left GAMA briefly in January 1990 (serving as senior vice president of the international construction company Morrison-Knudsen Corporation in Boise, Idaho), but returned as its president at the end of 1991. In 1996 he was appointed vice chair of GAMA and chairman of the program entitled GA Team 2000. Renamed as the “Be a Pilot” program in 1998, this encouraged people to “Stop Dreaming Start Flying,” and greatly boosted the number of student pilots.

Among numerous lifetime awards, Stimpson received the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy in 1998. He served on various governmental advisory task forces and committees, and was a long-term member (1975-1999) and chairman (1986-1994) of the Board of Trustees at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Embry-Riddle acknowledged Stimpson’s contributions in awarding him an honorary doctorate in aviation management and has named a residence hall and a laboratory in his honor.

After appointment by President Clinton, Stimpson was sworn in on October 5, 1999 to be United States Representative, with the rank of Ambassador, on the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Based in Montreal, the ICAO is the branch of the United Nations that sets international aviation standards. After serving as Ambassador under two presidents, Stimpson retired in December 2004 to return home to Boise. Early the next year he was elected chairman of the international nonprofit Flight Safety Foundation (FSF), and was appointed by the mayor to the Boise Airport Commission. In October 2009 he was awarded the Flight Safety Foundation-Boeing Aviation Safety Lifetime Achievement Award.

Edward W. Stimpson passed away on November 25, 2009, shortly following his retirement from the FSF, and is buried in the Stimpson family plot in Bellingham. As his father was before him, Edward W. Stimpson was memorialized in the Congressional Record, and honors have continued posthumously. In February 2011 the City of Boise renamed a street leading to the new airport control tower “Ed Stimpson Way” and May 25, 2011 was, by declaration of the Governor, “Ed and Dottie Stimpson Day” in Idaho.