Warren Augustine Bechtel (September 12, 1872 – August 28, 1933) was the 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 ...

, the 2nd largest construction company in

the United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

as of 2022.

Early life

Warren Augustine Bechtel was born on September 12, 1872, on a stock farm in

Freeport, Illinois Freeport is the largest city in Stephenson County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The population was 23,973 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, and the mayor of Freeport is Jodi Miller, elected in 2017. Freeport is k ...

, as the fifth child of Elizabeth (Bentz) and John Moyer Bechtel in a family of two boys and five girls. In 1884, his family moved to Kansas. In 1891, Warren graduated from Peabody High School in Peabody, Kansas. In 1897, Warren married Clara Alice West, from Aurora, Indiana, whom he had met while she visited her uncle (E.F. Davison) in Peabody.

Career

In 1898, Bechtel and his wife moved from their farm near Peabody, Kansas, to the

Oklahoma Territory The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as ...

to construct railroads with his own team of

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey, and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two ...

s. Bechtel moved his family frequently between construction sites around the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

for the next several years and eventually moved to

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 ...

, in 1904, where he worked as the superintendent on the

Western Pacific Railroad The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...

on its Richmond and Santa Fe lines. In 1906, W. A. Bechtel won his first subcontract to build part of the Oroville-to-Oakland section of the Western Pacific Railroad. The same year, he bought his own

steam shovel A steam shovel is a large steam engine, steam-powered excavating machine designed for lifting and moving material such as Rock (geology), rock and soil. It is the earliest type of power shovel or excavator. Steam shovels played a major role in ...

, 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 Oroville (''Oro'', Spanish for "Gold" and ''Ville'', French for "town") is a city in and the county seat of Butte County, California, United States. Its population was 15,506 at the 2010 census, up from 13,004 in the 2000 census. After the 20 ...

, depot for the

, then under construction. In 1919, Warren Bechtel and his partners (including his brother Arthur) 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 Stephen or Steven is an English given name, first name. It is particularly significant to Christianity, Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is w ...

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 ...

, and his brother Arthur (Art) 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 Nevada County ( ) is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California, in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 102,241. The county seat is Nevada City, Califor ...

. The firm would later partner with other companies to form Six Companies to help engineer the famous

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 ...

over the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

, still considered the largest civil engineering project in US history. In 1930, Bechtel constructed a natural gas pipeline from

Tracy, California Tracy is the second most populated city in San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County, California, United States. The population was 93,000 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Tracy is located inside a geographic triangle form ...

, to

Crockett, California Crockett (formerly Crockettville) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa County, in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay sub-region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. The population w ...

, for

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

and a pipeline from

Milpitas, California Milpitas (Spanish for or little cornfields) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, part of Silicon Valley and the broader San Francisco Bay Area. Located on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, it is bordered by San Jose, California, S ...

, to Tres Pinos, California, for the

Pacific Gas and Electric Company The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered at Kaiser Center, in Oakland, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 million households in the norther ...

. In 1931, Bechtel replaced

William Henry Wattis William Henry Wattis (August 15, 1859 – September 13, 1931) was one of the three Wattis Brothers who founded Utah Construction Company in 1900. Early life William Henry Wattis was born on August 15, 1859, in Uinta, Utah Territory, the fourth ...

as president of the Six Companies.

Death

Bechtel died of an accidental insulin overdose on a business visit to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

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 ...

, to inspect the Dnieprostroi Dam, in 1933. He died in the Hotel National. He was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in

Legacy

His son, Stephen D. Bechtel Sr., took over the firm upon his father's death. The

is still owned and operated by the Bechtel family. Its current CEO is Brendan Bechtel. In 1997, Warren was inducted into the Kansas Business Hall of Fame.

References

External links

Bechtel Corporation history

Obituary of Warren A. Bechtel
Peabody Gazette-Herald; October 12, 1933.
Obituary of Arthur V. Bechtel
Peabody Gazette-Herald; June 20, 1946. Some history about the involvement of his brother in the Bechtel company.
''Six Companies, Now Single Unit, Ready to Sign Contract for Hoover Dam''
newspaper article; 1931, includes photo of W.A. Bechtel Sr, S.D. Bechtel, K.K. Bechtel. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bechtel, Warren A. 1872 births 1933 deaths People from Freeport, Illinois People from Peabody, Kansas Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area Bechtel people American company founders American construction businesspeople 20th-century American businesspeople Burials at Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California) Accidental deaths in the Soviet Union Kansas Business Hall of Fame inductees Bechtel family