He received the Daniel Guggenheim Medal in 1934 and was posthumously inducted in to the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1966, ten years after his death.

William Boeing was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Marie M. Ortmann, from Vienna, Austria, and Wilhelm Böing (1846–1890) from Hohenlimburg, Germany.

He enrolled at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut,[4] in 1898, studying in the engineering department[5] of the Sheffield Scientific School,[5][6] but dropped out in 1903 to go into the lumber business.

[8] He was successful in the venture, in part by shipping lumber to the East Coast via the then-new Panama Canal, generating funds that he would later apply to a very different business.

[10] In 1910, at the Dominguez Flying Meet, Boeing asked every pilot foreign and domestic if he could go for an airplane ride and was repeatedly denied except for French aviator Louis Paulhan.

Huge crates arrived by train and Smith assembled the plane in a tent hangar erected on the shore of Lake Union.

In 1916, Boeing went into business with George Conrad Westervelt as "B & W" and founded Pacific Aero Products Co.[13][14] It was headquartered in the former Heath shipyard.

On March 3, 1919, Willam Boeing partnered with Eddie Hubbard to make the first delivery of international airmail to the United States.

In 1929, Boeing joined with Frederick Rentschler of Pratt & Whitney to form United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, which was established as a holding company.

The same year, the Air Mail Act forced airplane companies to separate flight operations from development and manufacturing.

William Boeing divested himself of ownership as his holding company broke up into three separate entities: He began investing most of his time in his horses in 1937.

[20] The Boeings placed racially restrictive covenants on their land to enforce segregation, forbidding properties from being "sold, conveyed, rented, or leased in whole or in part to any person not of the White or Caucasian race."

Concerned about the possibility of World War II battles in the Pacific Northwest, he purchased a 650-acre (260 ha) farm in the countryside east of Seattle, which he dubbed "Aldarra."

His primary residence for most of his life, however, was a mansion in The Highlands community close to Seattle; the William E. Boeing House was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places.