BECHTEL

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Sunday, September 07, 2008 at 04:44:14 :

San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, February 6, 1978
Page 26

Executive Kenneth K. Bechtel, 73

Kenneth K. Bechtel, prominent insurance executive and one of the founders of the giant San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., died Saturday after a brief illness. He was 73.

Mr. Bechtel was president of the Industrial Indemnity Co., a San Francisco-based insurance firm from 1932 to 1970, when he became senior director.

He was a founder of W. A. Bechtel Co. – which later grew into the Bechtel, the immense construction firm – together with his father, the late W. A. Bechtel Sr., and his brothers, Stephen D. Bechtel Sr. and the late W. A. Bechtel Jr.

A company spokesman said Mr. Bechtel was not involved with Bechtel Corp. at the time of his death.

The current chairman of the Bechtel Corp., Stephen D. Bechtel Jr., is Kenneth Bechtel’s nephew.

During World War II, Mr. Bechtel was head of the Marin-ship Corp., which built and operated a shipyard in Sausalito for the Maritime Commission. The yard produced 96 ships in three years, and employed as many as 20,000 persons.

Mr. Bechtel served during 1956-59 as president of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He was active in conservation affairs and served as a director of the National Audubon Society and as a trustee of the California Academy of Sciences.

Mr. Bechtel was a native of Oakland and had lived in Marin county since the 1930s. He was a Scottish Rite Mason, and a member of the Pacific Union, Bohemian, Bankers and San Francisco Yacht Clubs.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy; two sons, Peter of Coeur d’Alene, Ida., and Jon of Yuba City, and eight grandchildren.

Funeral services will be private, and the date has not been set.