NEW YORK, May 5 (Reuters) - Frank Anderson Shrontz, the

former chief executive officer and chairman of planemaker Boeing ( BA )

and part owner of the Seattle Mariners baseball team, has

died, the Mariners said in a statement on Saturday.

Shrontz joined Boeing ( BA ) in 1958 before taking a hiatus and

then rejoined the company to later become its chief executive

officer for a decade. He passed away on May 3 at the age of 92,

the statement said.

Shrontz served in the Department of Defense in the Richard

Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations during his brief tenure

outside company, including as assistant secretary of the Air

Force, before rejoining the planemaker in 1977, according to a

biography on Boeing's ( BA ) website.

He advocated for the mid-range Boeing 737 over the more

fuel-efficient and longer-range 757 and 767 during the energy

crisis of the 1970s. A Fortune magazine article described this

decision as either "lucky or prescient," as the 737 later became

one of Boeing's ( BA ) best-selling planes.

Shrontz led Boeing ( BA ) as CEO between 1986 and 1996, a period

where Boeing ( BA ) more than doubled its revenues to $35 billion.

He became chairman of the board in January 1988 and then

chairman emeritus on Feb. 1, 1997, following his retirement,

according to his biography.

"We are deeply grateful to Frank Shrontz for his leadership

and many years of service to the United States, the Puget Sound

community and Boeing ( BA ). Our thoughts are with his family," Boeing ( BA )

said in an email to Reuters.

The Mariners said Shrontz was a key member of the

partnership group that took control of the Seattle Mariners in

1992.

"He was widely admired and respected in Seattle for both his

community work and his leadership of the Boeing Company ( BA ), and his

national and international reputation helped legitimize the new

group in the eyes of Major League Baseball," the Mariners said.