Alameda County
Biographies
HENRY J.
KAISER
Henry J.
Kaiser, industrialist was born on May 9, 1882, in Sprout Brook, New York; son
of Francis J and Mary (Yopps). His formal schooling
stopped just before the eighth grade (received honorary degrees from Washington
State University, Montana School of Mines and Hobart College) and he went to
work at the age of thirteen. His first job was as a cash boy in a dry goods
store in Utica, New York, and subsequently promoted to salesman; worked for two
Utica photographic supply dealers and also for other companies as clerk and
salesman, resigning to enter photography business, and became proprietor of a
photographic firm in Lake Placid, New York, with company branches in Florida.
He sold the firm in 1905 and removed to the West.
Mr. Kaiser was a salesman for a
hardware firm in Spokane, Washington, in 1906, then salesman for a fuel
company. His first construction experience came when he took a job as salesman
and manager of paving jobs for the A. J. Hill Company, Spokane contractors.
In 1914 he launched into the road
building business with his own company, continuing in highway construction
until 1930; when he turned his attention to the heavy construction industry,
alone or in association with other contractors. From 1930 to 1939 he was
president or chairman of executive committees of various corporations which
constructed Boulder Dam, the East Bay piers of San Francisco-Oakland Bay
Bridge, the main spillway dam at Bonneville, Oregon, the Corpus Christie, Texas,
Naval Air Station, and Grand Coulee Dam.
During World War II, Mr. Kaiser
entered into ships and steel and is best known for his shipbuilding
achievements; initiated program for mass-production of small escort carriers;
built a total of 1,490 ships. Besides ships, he sent aircraft, aircraft parts,
magnesium, incendiary material, artillery shells, iron and steel, ferroalloys,
cement, chemicals and other products to World War II battles on land, sea and
air.
Since 1939, Mr. Kaiser has served as
chairman of the board of Kaiser-Frazer Corporation; also as president and
active head of the following corporation: Henry J. Kaiser Company, Permanente
Cement Company, Permanente Metals Corporation (now Kaiser Aluminum &
Chemical Corporation), which was organized in 1940, Kaiser Steel Corporation,
Richmond Shipbuilding Corporation, Kaiser Company, Inc., Kaiser Cargo, Inc.
(now Kaiser Metal Products, Inc.), Kaiser Industries, and Henry J. Kaiser
Motors which is the San Francisco area distributor of Kaiser and Frazer automobiles.
He acted as chairman of the board of Brewster Aeronautical Corporation,
1943-1944, and president of same, October, 1943 to May, 1944.
Mr. Kaiser married Bessie Hannah Fosburgh (deceased) on April 8, 1907; children: Edgar F.
and Henry J., Jr.
He is a member of Committee of
Trustees, Northwestern University; member of faculty, Northwestern Institute of
Technology, 75th Anniversary Committee of Metropolitan Museum of
Art; National chairman of Victory Clothing Collection, 1945-46; belongs to the
Episcopal Church; member of the following clubs: Celestials, Metropolitan,
Rockefeller Center, Luncheon, Athens Athletic, Automobile Old Timers, Claremont
Country; and is founder (with Mrs. Kaiser) of Permanente Foundation which
sponsor thirteen hospitals and clinics, and a pre-paid health plan on the West
Coast.
Offices: Kaiser Building, Oakland, California;
Kaiser-Frazer Corporation, Willow Run, Michigan.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: “Eminent Californians 1953”,
by Lee E. Johnson & C. W. Taylor. Pages 417-418, C. W.
Taylor Publ., Palo Alto, California, 1953.
© 2014 Cecelia M. Setty.
BACK TO GOLDEN
NUGGET LIBRARY'S ALAMEDA DATABASES