Deane and Reita Cruze while they were dating in 1951. Deane retired from the Boeing Co. in 1995 and named a scholarship after his wife for students whose parents work at the company. (Family photo)

Deane and Reita Cruze while they were dating in 1951. Deane retired from the Boeing Co. in 1995 and named a scholarship after his wife for students whose parents work at the company. (Family photo)

Family contributes 208 years of service to Boeing

Deane Cruze retired in 1995. He started a scholarship for kids whose parents work for the company.

EVERETT — What was supposed to be a short trip to Washington state lasted more than 20 years.

The young woman left Scotland in the early 1950s to stay with a friend who worked at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. She met a sailor there named Deane Cruze. They were engaged within a month.

Different circumstances through the years kept Reita Cruze from returning to Glasgow.

The pair were married in March 1952. Deane Cruze, now 88, worked at The Boeing Co. for 43 years. The couple settled in Edmonds and raised five children, all of whom went on to work for the airplane manufacturer.

In total, the family has contributed more than 200 years of work to the company. When Deane Cruze retired in 1995, he started a scholarship in his wife’s name.

The $5,000 Reita Cruze Scholarship is awarded to two applicants each year. The recipient’s parents must be on Boeing’s payroll with at least five years of experience there. The grant is managed by the Seattle Foundation.

The money is given to those who plan to study business at one of five universities in Washington. Applications are accepted for about three months, usually starting in December.

Deane Cruze remembers meeting his future wife at a Fourth of July party in 1950. He was in the Navy and was deployed soon after, during the Korean War.

“She waited for him,” said their daughter, Laurie Knott. “When he got out of the war and came home they got married.”

Deane Cruze started to work for Boeing in 1953. Their first child was born that same year.

Knott, who turns 62 on Tuesday, is the youngest of her siblings. Around the time she was starting kindergarten, her father was transferred to a Boeing plant in St. Louis, and later to New Orleans.

The family came back to Washington after that. The children went to Edmonds High School, and Deane Cruze began work at the Everett factory. He was there when the first Boeing 747 was built, Knott said.

Reita Cruze was a homemaker and often volunteered at schools in the area. She died in 2015.

“She was just a June Cleaver kind of mom,” Knott said. “She was always involved with PTA and scouts. We had this kind of house where all our friends wanted to hang out because my mom was so cool.”

Once the kids graduated high school, Deane Cruze began to work in Renton. Now living on Mercer Island, he retired as the company’s vice president of operations. He started as an electrician.

“He always said my mom’s support got him to where he was,” Knott said. “When he retired, he wanted to give something back to the Boeing Co. to honor my mother.”

Stephanie Davey: 425-339-3192; sdavey@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @stephrdavey.

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