William George Kerckhoff (1856–1929) was an American businessman.

Early life

Kerckhoff was born on March 30, 1856, in Terre Haute, Indiana,
Short History of the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research
', W. G. Kerckhoff Institute] the son of George W.B. Kerckhoff (1823–1896), an immigrant from Lingen, Germany, Lingen in the

Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover (german: Königreich Hannover) was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of H ...

, and Philippine Newhart (1831–1870).

Career

Kerckhoff moved to

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is th ...

, from

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

in 1878-1879 and worked for the Jackson Lumber Company.West Adams Heritage Association
/ref> In 1887, along with James Cuzner of the Kerckhoff-Cuzner Lumber Company, he built the ''Pasadena''. It was the first ocean-going vessel to use oil for fuel. In the 1890s, he founded the San Gabriel Power Company, a hydroelectric power company in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

. By the turn of the century, together with A.C. Balch, he owned half the stock of Henry E. Huntington's Pacific Light & Power Company used to provide electricity to

Pacific Electric The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...

, and he served as its president. In 1902, they purchased the San Joaquin Electric Company. They also founded Southern California Gas Corporation in 1910, and built a 120-mile pipeline from the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven ...

to Los Angeles. In 1906, with

Burton E. Green Burton Edmond Green (September 6, 1868 – May 13, 1965) was an American oilman and real estate developer. He was critical in the development of Beverly Hills, California, and he is credited with naming it Beverly Hills after Beverly Farms i ...

(1868-1965),

Charles A. Canfield Charles Adelbert Canfield (May 15, 1848 – August 15, 1913) was an American oilman and real estate developer. He pioneered oil drilling in California and Mexico. He also co-founded Beverly Hills and Del Mar, California. Early life Charles Adel ...

(1848-1913),

Max Whittier Max H. Whittier (1867–1925) was an American real estate developer and a pioneer in the early California petroleum industry. Biography Max Whittier (born Mericos Hector Whittier), was born to Charles G. Whittier and Ruth Keech, came to California ...

(1867–1928),

Frank H. Buck Frank Henry Buck (September 23, 1887 – September 17, 1942) was an American heir, businessman and politician. He served as U.S. Representative from California from 1933 to 1942. Biography Early life Frank Buck was born on a ranch near Vac ...

(1887-1942),

Henry E. Huntington Henry Edwards Huntington (February 27, 1850 – May 23, 1927) was an American railroad magnate and collector of art and rare books. Huntington settled in Los Angeles, where he owned the Pacific Electric Railway as well as substantial real estate ...

(1850-1927),

William F. Herrin William Franklin Herrin (August 7, 1854 – February 28, 1927) was an American lawyer, businessman, banker and real estate developer. Biography Herrin assisted William Sharon (1821-1885) in his acrimonious divorce from his wife Sarah. He subseq ...

(1854-1927), W.S. Porter and Frank H. Balch, known as the Amalgamated Oil Company, he purchased

Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas was a land grant in present day Beverly Hills, Los Angeles County, California given to María Rita Quinteros Valdez de Villa in 1838. Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas (Ranch of the Gathering Waters), is named for the streams t ...

from the heirs of

Henry Hammel and Andrew H. Denker Andrew Henry Denker (October 17, 1840 – November 13, 1892) was a German-born American businessman and politician was a business parter of Henry Hammel. He and Hammel, his brother-in-law, ran hotels and owned an extensive spread of agricultural ...

. After drilling for oil and only finding water, they reorganized their business into the Rodeo Land and Water Company to develop a new residential town later known as

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

. As president of the South Coast Land Company, he also helped found the city of

Del Mar, California Del Mar (; Spanish for "Of the Sea") is a beach town in San Diego County, California, located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Established in 1885 as a seaside resort, the city incorporated in 1959. The Del Mar Horse Races are hosted on the ...

. and the small town of

Biola, California Biola is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fresno County, California, United States. The population was 1,623 at the 2010 census, up from 1,037 in 2000. Biola is located north-northeast of Kerman, at an elevation of 253 feet (77 m). Geography Ac ...

Personal life

Kerckhoff married Louisa Eshman of

Terre Haute Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...

in 1883. They lived in a grand mansion at 734 West Adams Boulevard designed by the architects

Sumner Hunt Sumner P. Hunt (Brooklyn, NY, May 8, 1865 – Los Angeles, CA, November 19, 1938) was an architect in Los Angeles from 1888 to the 1930s. On January 21, 1892, he married Mary Hancock Chapman, January 21, 1892. They had a daughter Louise Hunt. Li ...

(1865-1938),

Abraham Wesley Eager Abram Wesley Eager (1864–1930) was an American architect. He designed many houses in Los Angeles, California. Early life Eager was born in 1864 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He moved to California in 1887 and settled in Los Angeles, Californi ...

(1864-1930) and

Silas Reese Burns Silas Reese Burns (1855–1940) was an American architect. Biography Early life He was born on April 8, 1855, in Morgantown, West Virginia. He became a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1882. He graduated from the Massachusetts ...

(1855-1940). Originally donated to the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8. ...

for use as the Louise E. Kerckhoff Medical Sciences Laboratory, it now stands at the center of USC's Annenberg Research Park.

Death and legacy

Kerckhoff died in Los Angeles on February 22, 1929. The

Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory The William G. Kerckhoffbr>Marine Laboratory'' is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). It is located 101 Dahlia Street, in the Corona del Mar district of Newport Beach, in Orange County, California. History ...

Corona del Mar, Newport Beach Corona del Mar (Spanish for "Crown of the Sea") is a seaside neighborhood in the city of Newport Beach, California. It generally consists of all the land on the seaward face of the San Joaquin Hills south of Avocado Avenue to the city limits, as ...

is named in his honor, as are the "Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research - W.G. Kerckhoff Institute" and the "Kerckhoff-Klinik" (a hospital for cardiology, cardiac surgery, pulmology, thoracic surgery, and rheumatology, affiliated with the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von ...

School of Medicine and part of the William G. Kerckhoff Foundation), both in

Bad Nauheim Bad Nauheim is a town in the Wetteraukreis district of Hesse state of Germany. As of 2020, Bad Nauheim has a population of 32,493. The town is approximately north of Frankfurt am Main, on the east edge of the Taunus mountain range. It is a worl ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. The William G. Kerckhoff Laboratories of the Biological Sciences at Caltech were built in 1928 to house the Institute's new biology division.

Kerckhoff Hall Kerckhoff or Kerckhoffs is a Dutch and Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor ...

, designed by

Allison & Allison Allison & Allison was the architectural firm of James Edward Allison (1870-1955) and his brother David Clark Allison (1881-1962). Originally based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1910 the Allisons moved to Los Angeles in Southern California. ...

, is home to various student media, clubs, and organizations on the UCLA campus. It was the result of a US$815,000 ($100,000 for furnishing) donation from his widow Louisa.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerchoff, William G. 1856 births 1929 deaths American people of German descent Businesspeople from Los Angeles People from Beverly Hills, California People from Del Mar, California People from West Adams, Los Angeles