Stephen Bechtel Sr.
[2] He graduated from Oakland Technical High School[3] in 1918, and served with the 20th Engineer Brigade, part of the American Expeditionary Force sent to assist France in World War I.In 1919, after the war, he attended the University of California, Berkeley for one year and left to work for his father's company full-time.[2][4] In 1923, Bechtel married Laura Adeline Peart, a Berkeley alumna, who would help her husband build the family-owned business into one of the world's largest engineering and construction firms.[2][citation needed] Over the next 30 years, Stephen expanded Bechtel into a huge and successful engineering company with operations all over the world.[6] Stephen Bechtel died on March 14, 1989, at Merritt Peralta Medical Center in Oakland, California.