Edgar F. Kaiser

Edgar Fosburgh Kaiser , Edgar Kaiser senior, (born July 29, 1908 in Seattle , † December 7, 1981 in Oakland , California ) was an American entrepreneur.

Kaiser was the son of Henry J. Kaiser , the founder of the industrial dynasty. He was involved in his father's construction company from an early age and studied economics at the University of California until 1930. With his father's permission, he left university without a degree and worked on pipeline construction in Texas (originally with the intention of making up for his university degree later), from 1932 at the Hoover Dam as a foreman and later supervisor of the excavation work for the dam and then at Bonneville Dam . In 1941 he became Vice President and General Manager of Kaiser Shipyards , his father's shipyard company in which the Liberty freighters were manufactured on an assembly line from prefabricated parts during World War II. In 1947 he became general manager of the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation ( Kaiser Motors ) for car manufacturing. In 1954 he returned to the head office and in 1956 he became President of Kaiser Industries Corporation, even though his father still largely determined the management until his death. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his promotion of home construction, especially for middle and low incomes, as a member of Lyndon B. Johnson's Committee on Urban Housing in the 1960s . He also received the Award of Excellence from Engineering News-Record . In 1970 Kaiser was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

In 1959 he became chairman of the board of directors of Kaiser Steel Corporation and broke with the rest of the steelmakers by coming to an agreement with the striking workers. Even under John F. Kennedy he was on several state committees.

One of his sons was Edgar F. Kaiser Jr. (1942–2012), who owned the Denver Broncos and later moved to Canada.

Web links

• Obituary in the New York Times , December 13, 1981