Stephen Davison Bechtel Jr. (May 10, 1925 – March 15, 2021) was an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businessman, civil engineer, and co-owner of the

Bechtel Corporation Bechtel Corporation () is an American engineering, procurement, construction, and project management company founded in San Francisco, California in 1898, and headquartered in Reston, Virginia in the Washington metropolitan area. , the ''Enginee ...

. He was the son of Stephen Davison Bechtel Sr. and grandson of Warren A. Bechtel, who founded the Bechtel Corporation. He was known for expanding the global footprint of the corporation through several of its international projects. Some of the projects executed under his leadership of the company included

King Khalid International Airport King Khalid International Airport (; ) is an international airport located about north of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This airport consists of five Airport terminal, passenger terminals with eight aero-bridges each, a mosque, and parking facilities ...

Riyadh Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate. Located on the eastern bank of Wadi Hanifa, the current form of the metropolis largely emerged in th ...

as well as Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia as well as oil platforms in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

liquefied natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume o ...

plants in Algeria, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates. Bechtel also served on the board of

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

and International Business Machines. He had a bachelor's degree from the

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

and a master's degree from the

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business is the Postgraduate education, graduate business school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective ...

. At the time of his death, he had a net worth of nearly

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

3 billion according to ''Forbes''.

Early life and education

Bechtel was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, on May 10, 1925. He was the son of Laura A. Peart and Stephen Bechtel Sr., and the grandson of Warren A. Bechtel, the founder of American construction and civil engineering firm

. During his time in high school, he enlisted in

Marine Corps Reserve The Marine Forces Reserve (MARFORRES or MFR), also known as the United States Marine Corps Reserve (USMCR) and the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve, is the reserve force of the United States Marine Corps. The Marine Corps Reserve is an expedi ...

, and went to

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

to study engineering. In 1946, he graduated from

with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in civil engineering, where he was a member of

Beta Theta Pi Beta Theta Pi (), commonly known as Beta, is a North American social Fraternities and sororities in North America, fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. One of North America's oldest fraternities, , it consist ...

, and married Elizabeth "Betty" Mead Hogan, a Berkeley alumna. He earned his

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

degree from the

in 1948.

Career

Bechtel joined the family business in 1948. While he initially wanted to enter into home building, he was convinced by his father by showcasing Bechtel Corporation's global projects in a three-week trip. He succeeded his father, Stephen Bechtel Sr., as president of Bechtel Corporation in 1960 and chairman in 1969. His career with the company spanned 30 years until his retirement in 1990. During his time, the company which was earlier known for its work on the

Hoover Dam The Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado, Black Canyon of the Colorado River (U.S.), Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. Constructed between 1931 and 1936, d ...

and the

Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running to Antioch, and Oakland Airport Connecto ...

, expanded its global footprint by working on the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

between France and the United Kingdom,

as well as Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia. The last is considered one of the largest civil engineering projects of the time. The company was involved in the build out of oil platforms in the

plants in Algeria, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, and also in the cleanup of the nuclear reactor site Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. The company's role in Boston's infrastructure projects, titled

Big Dig The Big Dig was a megaproject in Boston that rerouted the then elevated Central Artery of Interstate 93 that cut across Boston into the O'Neill Tunnel and built the Ted Williams Tunnel to extend Massachusetts Turnpike, Interstate 90 to Logan I ...

, in the 1990s came into scrutiny, with the company having to pay to settle litigation over a ceiling collapse and leaky tunnels. Earlier, the company had been charged by the

US Justice Department The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equi ...

in 1976 of illegally complying with the Arab League boycott of Israel, and had also faced criticism for undertaking projects in

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

's Iraq of the 1980s. During his leadership, the 1980s oil glut and the resulting plunge in oil prices resulted in reduced spend by the middle-eastern countries on infrastructure projects including petroleum pipelines, resulting in a significant impact to the company's business. In addition to retrenchments of about half of its 44,000 member large workforce, the company under Bechtel's leadership undertook

financial engineering Financial engineering is a multidisciplinary field involving financial theory, methods of engineering, tools of mathematics and the practice of programming. It has also been defined as the application of technical methods, especially from mathe ...

actions including taking part ownership in some of the infrastructure projects. During his time the company, over three decades, the company's revenues grew eleven-fold, and the company also pivoted from majority ownership residing within the family to a model that had majority ownership by managers outside of the family. He held 20 percent of the company shares and his net worth in 2021 was estimated by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' to be $2.9 billion. After his retirement from Bechtel Corporation, he headed the real estate company

Fremont Group Fremont Group is a private investment group based in San Francisco, California, United States. It was formerly known as Bechtel Investments up until 1993, reflecting its ownership by the Bechtel family. In 1993, its name was officially changed to ...

, which was also an early investor in Starbucks Corporation. He had also served as director on the board of

and International Business Machines.

Political appointments

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...

appointed Bechtel to the President's Committee on Urban Housing.

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

named him to membership on the National Industrial Pollution Control Council, the National Commission on Productivity, the Labor Management Advisory Committee, and the National Commission for Industrial Peace.

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...

asked Bechtel to serve on the President's Labor-Management Committee.

Boy Scouts

Bechtel became an Eagle Scout in 1940 and has been recognized by the

Boy Scouts of America Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...

with both the

Distinguished Eagle Scout Award The Distinguished Eagle Scout Award (DESA) is a distinguished service award of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). It is awarded to an Eagle Scout who has achieved extraordinary national-level recognition, fame, or eminence within their profession ...

and the

Silver Buffalo Award The Silver Buffalo Award is the national-level distinguished service award of Scouting America. It is presented for noteworthy and extraordinary service to youth on a national basis, either as part of, or independent of the Scouting program. The ...

. Stephen's uncle Kenneth K. Bechtel was awarded the Silver Buffalo in 1950 and served as national president of the Boy Scouts of America from 1956 to 1959. The BSA acquired new property near

Beckley, West Virginia Beckley is a city in Raleigh County, West Virginia, United States, and its county seat. The population was 17,286 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in West Virginia, ninth-most populous city in th ...

, for a new high adventure base in 2009. Bechtel donated $50 million towards the new base, which has been named

The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, often shortened to Summit Bechtel Reserve (SBR) or The Summit, is a High Adventure bases of Scouting America, High Adventure base owned by Scouting America and located in Fayette County, West Vir ...

Philanthropy

Bechtel was a contributor to many environmental causes. He created a foundation in 1957 to support these cases. The foundation contributed $50 million to create a National Scout Reserve in southern

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

, which is now the home of the national boy scout jamboree. The foundation contributed $25 million to renovate the

Presidio of San Francisco The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part ...

. The S. D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation and the Stephen Bechtel Fund support many non-profit groups, especially in the San Francisco Bay area. Stephen and Betty's largess also extended to Berkeley's International House,

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

, Achievement Rewards for College Scientists, the

San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony, founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley, San Francisco, Hayes Valley ne ...

, the

San Francisco Ballet San Francisco Ballet is the oldest ballet company in the United States, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet under the leadership of ballet master Adolph Bolm. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Fra ...

, the Head Royce School, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

, the American Friends of the Royal Academy Trust, the Nature Conservancy, the

Royal Oak Foundation The Royal Oak Foundation is an alliance of American citizens supporting the mission of the National Trust of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which is Britain's largest heritage organisation. The foundation is headquartered in New York City. E ...

, the

Huntington Library The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington and Arabella Huntington in San Marino, California, United State ...

, and the

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 ...

Awards and honors

Bechtel was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1990. He is the 1980 recipient of the Hoover Medal, which commemorates the civic and humanitarian achievements of engineers. In 1990, he was elevated to National Honor Member by Chi Epsilon, the national civil engineering honor society. In 1998, he and his son Riley were presented with the Honor Award from the National Building Museum for their company's contributions to the built environment. Bechtel received the Award of Excellence from ''Engineering News-Record'' for his leadership of Bechtel Corporation. He received the

National Medal of Technology and Innovation The National Medal of Technology and Innovation (formerly the National Medal of Technology) is an honor granted by the president of the United States to American inventors and innovators who have made significant contributions to the development ...

in 1991, from the then US President,

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

Personal life

Bechtel and his wife, Betty, had two sons and three daughters. One son, Riley Bechtel, succeeded him as the chairman and chief executive of the

. He was a nature enthusiast and hiker who had once made the trek to the Everest base camp and had also hiked the

John Muir Trail The John Muir Trail (JMT) is a long-distance trail in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, passing through Yosemite National Park, Yosemite, Kings Canyon National Park, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park, Se ...

over a 211-mile course. Bechtel died on March 15, 2021, at his home in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, California. He was aged 95.

Books

References

External links

National Academy of Engineering: 1999 Founders Award Recipient"Stephen Bechtel Jr.", ''Bechtel Corporation''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bechtel, Stephen 1925 births 2021 deaths American billionaires American chief executives Bechtel people California Institute of Technology trustees Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences National Medal of Technology recipients Purdue University College of Engineering alumni Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople 20th-century American philanthropists 21st-century American philanthropists Businesspeople from Oakland, California Philanthropists from California United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II United States Marine Corps reservists Hikers Bechtel family