Publisher's Synopsis
"Honest Vision: The Donald Douglas Story" tells the life story of a man who foresaw and developed a critical part of our daily modern lives, the commercial airliner-yet remained relatively unknown to the general public. The author, Julie Boatman Filucci ("Together We Fly: Voices from the DC-3") crafted this marvelous biography of Donald Wills Douglas mostly from the memories of the people who knew him, saw his vision, and navigated his quirks of personality and temperament, as well as from works of company history and details from the epic tale of the Douglas Aircraft Company itself. The author draws from interviews with former company employees and executives, friends and especially family members, which together presents the personal and business history of the man, and includes stories involving Douglas Aircraft, its employees and their years of production - forming an intimate side-view of a company highly respected for their collective accomplishments. As the author states, "Douglas himself rarely took credit-he routinely directed accolades to his team…his greatest strength as a leader." Her gleanings from talks with family members such as of Douglas' son and grandson help frame the story "…in a way that makes Doug's vision come through, yet also demonstrate with compassion his humanity and his failures." Douglas' company no longer survives except in the hearts of its people and deep in the archives now kept by Boeing, one of his primary competitors in his lifetime and now of course, the owner of the U.S. transport airplane manufacturing business. For those who knew him and worked with him and as emblazoned through Douglas history in its crest, "Doug" embodied "a heart with wings" which was an honest vision that he strived to make real.
