Warren A. Bechtel


Warren Abraham Bechtel was the founder of the Bechtel Corporation, one of the world's largest engineering and construction services firms.

Biography

Early life

Warren was born September 12, 1872 in Freeport, Illinois, as the fifth child of Elizabeth and John Moyer Bechtel in a family of two boys and five girls. In 1891, Warren graduated from Peabody High School in Peabody, Kansas. In 1897, Warren married Clara Alice West, from Aurora, Indiana, whom he met while she previously visited her uncle in Peabody.

Career

In 1898, Bechtel and his wife moved from their farm near Peabody, Kansas, to the Oklahoma Territory to construct railroads with his own team of mules. Bechtel moved his family frequently between construction sites around the western United States for the next several years, eventually moving to Oakland, California in 1904, where he worked as the superintendent on the Western Pacific Railroad. In 1906, W. A. Bechtel won his first subcontract to build part of the Oroville-to-Oakland section of the Western Pacific Railroad. That same year, he bought his own steam shovel, becoming a pioneer of the new technology. He painted "W.A. Bechtel Co." on the side of the steam shovel, effectively establishing Bechtel as a company, though it was not yet incorporated.
Over the next 20 years, Bechtel built a sizable contracting business that specialized in railroad and highway building. One of Bechtel's earliest major contracts was grading the site of the Oroville, California depot for the Western Pacific Railroad, then under construction. In 1919, Warren Bechtel and his partners built the Klamath Highway in California, and in 1921 Warren Bechtel partners won a contract to build the water tunnels for the Caribou Hydroelectric Facility in that state. In 1925, Warren, his sons Warren Jr, Stephen, Kenneth, and his brother Arthur joined to incorporate as W.A. Bechtel Company. In 1926, the new company won its first major contract, the Bowman Lake dam in Nevada County, California. The firm would later partnership with other companies to form Six Companies, Inc. to help engineer the famous Hoover Dam over the Colorado River, still considered the largest civil engineering project in U.S. history.

Death

Bechtel died of an accidental insulin overdose while on a business visit to Moscow, Soviet Union in 1933.

Legacy

His son, Stephen D. Bechtel Sr., took over the firm upon his father's death.
Today, the Bechtel Corporation is still owned and operated by the Bechtel family. Its current CEO is Brendan Bechtel.