FROM JUMBO JETS TO GRADE SCHOOLS
By Laurie Kretchmar (

(FORTUNE Magazine) – Talk about downsizing. Malcolm Stamper, 67, has switched his focus from jumbo jets to grade-schoolers. The former Boeing vice chairman who supervised the development of the 747 in 1969 now works at persuading corporate leaders to invest in a program to teach kids to read. Says he: ''Business has a tremendous stake in having people who are literate.'' After retiring from Boeing in 1990, Stamper started Storytellers Ink, a small Seattle publisher that produces books about animals for Operation Outreach USA, a not-for-profit literacy program in Boston. Stamper's wife, Mari, is editor and, he says, ''provides 75% of the intellect.'' Jamie, 38, the third of four sons, is writing a trilogy of books featuring Lhasa apsos. Daughter Mary, 35, handles production. The likes of Chrysler, Woolworth, BellSouth, and Japan Airlines have chipped in a total of $250,000, enabling schools in Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, New York, and other cities to get 50,000 books. By 1994, Stamper hopes to have raised $5 million, enough to start getting books to every U.S. elementary school. Compared with launching the 747, he says, ''this doesn't sound all that impossible.''