Eleanor, as a 10 year old child, was into building model airplanes and wanted to design the real thing when she grew up. After graduating from Queen Anne High School in 1945, she attended Washington University and received her BS in Aeronautical Engineering where she was the only woman in her engineering class. In 1949, she started her 38 year career as a junior engineer with the Boeing Company in Seattle. Female wind tunnel engineers were pretty much unheard of when Eleanor became what was known in the late 1940’s as an, “aerodynamicist.” She was a wind tunnel testing engineer for much of her career. One of the many projects that she contributed to was the use of the “winglets” on the large airliners and the use of local wind tunnels to aid in the design.
While at a dance in Kansas, Eleanor met her future husband of 46 years, John Stone Dickson.
She lived most of her years in Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, and Mercer Island, in the state of Washington.
She moved to Covenant Living at the Shores on Mercer Island in 2008.
Eleanor’s many hobbies included playing the violin, rock collecting, researching family genealogy, capturing wonderful memories with her photography, solving crossword puzzles, playing cards, watching sports on TV, and keeping meticulous records on events in her life. She was a member of the Seattle Museum of Flight and the Westminster Chapel in Bellevue.
Eleanor was someone everyone wanted to be around, fun-loving, caring and loyal.
Eleanor is preceded in death by her parents, Hazel and Floyd Swartz; husband, John Dickson; sister, Gloria Swartz; brother-in-law, James T. Dickson; and nephews, Judd T. Dickson and Ted M. Dickson.
She is survived by her sister-in-law, Roberta Dickson; her niece, Deborah Dickson Anderson and her husband, Philip; nephew, James R. Dickson; Patricia A. Dickson, wife of late Ted. M. Dickson as well as Eleanor's many grand and great nieces and nephews.
The family appreciates the loving care given by the caregivers and staff of Covenant Living at the Shores.
Her family and friends will celebrate her life at Sunset Hills Memorial Park on July 23rd at 12pm.
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