Industrialist. Born in Indiana to Warren A. and Clara Alice West Bechtel. Stephen, known lovingly as Steve, was raised in construction camps, his teenage years were spent working with the construction crews. He shipped out to serve his country after his graduation from high school with 19 months in World War I. He was a dispatch motorcycle rider with the 20th engineers. After his discharge he continued his education at the University of California at Berkeley, studying engineering. At the age of 23, he and his college sweetheart Laura Adeline Peart would marry, together they would have two children, a son and a daughter. By the time Stephen reached his late twenties he was in effect the CEO of Bechtel-Kaiser's joint operations, and was pressuring his father and Henry Kaiser to get into the pipeline business. An early advocate of company expansion, Stephen wanted to pursue a more diverse workload. He became vice-president of Bechtel in 1925 and became president in 1933, when his father, Warren died suddenly. His father's death came at a critical time for the company, concrete was being poured for the Hoover Dam, it was the companies largest project up till that point. Over the next thirty years, he expanded Bechtel into a huge and successful engineering company with operations all over the world. Stephen handed the presidency of the company over to his son, Stephen Jr. in 1960, but stayed on as the chairman until 1969. Stephen was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. He died at the age of 88 in California.
Industrialist. Born in Indiana to Warren A. and Clara Alice West Bechtel. Stephen, known lovingly as Steve, was raised in construction camps, his teenage years were spent working with the construction crews. He shipped out to serve his country after his graduation from high school with 19 months in World War I. He was a dispatch motorcycle rider with the 20th engineers. After his discharge he continued his education at the University of California at Berkeley, studying engineering. At the age of 23, he and his college sweetheart Laura Adeline Peart would marry, together they would have two children, a son and a daughter. By the time Stephen reached his late twenties he was in effect the CEO of Bechtel-Kaiser's joint operations, and was pressuring his father and Henry Kaiser to get into the pipeline business. An early advocate of company expansion, Stephen wanted to pursue a more diverse workload. He became vice-president of Bechtel in 1925 and became president in 1933, when his father, Warren died suddenly. His father's death came at a critical time for the company, concrete was being poured for the Hoover Dam, it was the companies largest project up till that point. Over the next thirty years, he expanded Bechtel into a huge and successful engineering company with operations all over the world. Stephen handed the presidency of the company over to his son, Stephen Jr. in 1960, but stayed on as the chairman until 1969. Stephen was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. He died at the age of 88 in California.
Bio by: Shock
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