Stephen Davison Bechtel (September 24, 1900 – March 14, 1989) was the son of Clara Alice West and Warren A. Bechtel, founder 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 president of the company from 1933 to 1960.

Early life

Stephen Davison Bechtel was born on September 24, 1900, in Aurora, Indiana to Warren A. Bechtel. He grew up in construction camps, living with his father as he traveled to construction projects. He graduated from

Oakland Technical High School Oakland Technical High School, known locally as Oakland Tech or simply "Tech", is a public high school in Oakland, California, United States, and is operated under the jurisdiction of the Oakland Unified School District. It is one of six compre ...

in 1918, and served with the 20th Engineer Brigade, part of the

American Expeditionary Force The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) was a formation of the United States Armed Forces on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during World War I, composed mostly of units from the United States Army, U.S. Army. The AEF was establis ...

sent to assist

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In 1919, after the war, he attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

for one year and left to work for his father's company full-time. In 1923, Bechtel married Laura Adeline Peart, a Berkeley alumna, who would help her husband build the family-owned business into one of the world's largest engineering and construction firms.

Bechtel Company

In 1925, Warren A. Bechtel, his sons Warren Jr, Stephen Sr,

Kenneth Kenneth is a given name of Gaelic origin. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a byna ...

(Ken), and his brother Arthur (Art) joined to incorporate as ''W.A. Bechtel Company''. Stephen Sr. became vice-president of Bechtel in 1925. His father, Warren A. Bechtel, died suddenly while traveling to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1933. That came at a critical time for the company: concrete was being poured for 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 ...

, Bechtel's largest project. Stephen became president in 1935 and saw the company through the construction of the dam. Over the next 30 years, Stephen expanded Bechtel into a huge and successful engineering company with operations all over the world. He handed the presidency of the company over to his son, Stephen Jr. in 1960 but stayed on as the chairman until 1969. Berkeley awarded Bechtel an honorary degree in Agricultural Science in 1954, and in 1980, it completed construction of the Bechtel Engineering Center, which was named in his honor. Before this the building was known as the Mechanics Building. In 1976, Bechtel received the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...

Death and legacy

Stephen Bechtel died on March 14, 1989, at Merritt Peralta Medical Center 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 ...

. He was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland. Stephen was named by ''Time'' magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. The undergraduate engineering center of the

was named the "Bechtel Engineering Center." One of the buildings of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at the

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs le ...

(AUB) is named "The Bechtel Engineering Building" after its donor, Stephen Bechtel.

References

* Herman, Arthur. ''Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II,'' Random House, New York, NY. .

External links

''Time'' magazine profile of Stephen Bechtel

About the faculty of engineering and architecture at AUB

Stephen Bechtel's biography on company web-site

''Six Companies, Now Single Unit, Ready to Sign Contract for Hoover Dam''
newspaper article; unknown date, includes photo of W.A. Bechtel Sr, S.D. Bechtel, K.K. Bechtel. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bechtel, Stephen, D. Sr. 1900 births 1989 deaths People from Aurora, Indiana American technology chief executives Bechtel people American construction businesspeople University of California, Berkeley alumni American company founders 20th-century American businesspeople Stanford University trustees Burials at Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California) American University of Beirut people 20th-century American academics Oakland Technical High School alumni Bechtel family