EVERETT – As long as there has been a Boeing Co. factory in Everett, there has been a Millie Hughes working here.
For more than half of a century, Hughes has called the Boeing Co. her employer. Beginning her career in Wichita, Kan., Hughes transferred out to the Puget Sound region four decades ago.
“I thought I was going to work in Renton, but I ended up in Everett,” Hughes said.
And the 79-year-old blueprint clerk has been at Boeing’s factory in Everett ever since. On Tuesday, Hughes and hundreds of Boeing employees celebrated the company’s 40 years here.
Boeing originally built its twin-aisle jet factory in Everett to produce its 747 jumbo jet in the mid-1960s. The first employees, known as the Incredibles, arrived on Jan. 3, 1967, while construction crews continued to put up the factory around them. The company officially opened its factory, now the world’s largest building by volume, on May 1, 1967.
“We started with the groundbreaking leap of the 747,” said Ross Bogue, general manager of Boeing’s Everett site.
Through the years, Boeing has added space, plane programs – 767, 777 and 787 – and staff. The factory employs more than 25,000 people. With that many employees, Boeing remains a major employer in Everett and Snohomish County, where 25 percent to 30 percent of the county’s workforce are in aerospace-related jobs, Bogue said.
Nearly 40 years ago, Boeing christened its first 747 jumbo jet the “City of Everett” in honor of the place where Boeing’s Queen of the Skies took shape. On Tuesday, Everett did its best to return the favor. Mayor Ray Stephanson proclaimed May 1, 2007, as “Boeing Day” to commemorate the company’s four decades in town.
“You’ve been a stable presence in Everett, contributing to our way of life,” Stephanson said.
With a commercial jet backlog worth $188 billion and its new 787 jet in high demand, Boeing looks poised to keep Everett workers, like Hughes, busy for years to come.
Roughly 100 Boeing employees have worked at the company for 40 years or more. Many of them attended Tuesday’s event, held in a 747-production bay with work on the jumbo jets continuing in the background.
“It really is a unique thing about the Boeing Co.,” Bogue said. “People come here and spend their entire careers – 40 years or more – at the company.”
During her career with Boeing, Hughes has seen many milestones: the first flight of the 747, renovations for the 767 and 777 and the delivery of the 1,000th plane built in Everett. The summer, Boeing will deliver number 3,000.
And Hughes likely will be there. When asked when she plans to retire, Hughes looked offended and replied, “I’m not retiring.”
Her supervisor, Kathy Coffey, isn’t looking forward to the day Hughes calls it quits at Boeing.
“She can’t leave. She has too much knowledge,” Coffey said.
For more on Boeing’s 40 years in Everett, check out the Herald’s special section at heraldnet.com/boeing. You can read more about Tuesday’s event on reporter Michelle Dunlop’s aerospace blog at heraldnet.com.
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