Anderson, Benjamin M.

Benjamin Monroe Anderson is a native of Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1939 with a B.A. degree in geology. His father is Frank E. Anderson who founded Anderson, Clayton and Company, along with his brother and brother-in-law in 1904 in Oklahoma City.

After graduating from college, Benjamin Monroe Anderson joined Marvin Greenwood and Lomis Slaughter, Jr., in founding Anderson, Greenwood and Company in 1940 to build light airplanes. However, World War II put and end to their plans. The three men moved to Seattle to work for Boeing Company. After the war, the men revived their company building light airplanes, doing aeronautical engineering and eventually building one of the 100 largest public companies in Houston.

Anderson became an avid collector of books, paintings, watercolors and memorabilia related to aviation. F. E. F. Prince, a Royal Air Force Pilot during World War II, helped Anderson to build the collection, much of which is British in origin.

The biographical note is based on the following article. Houghton, Dorothy Knox Howe. 1994. Mr. and Mrs. Ben Anderson to be honored at "flying for fondren" gala. The Flyleaf (Winter): 2-3.

From the guide to the Benjamin M. Anderson Aeronautical History collection MS 69., 1784-1988, (Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, TX)