Kaiser, Henry J.

Henry J. Kaiser, in full Henry John Kaiser, (born May 9, 1882, Sprout Brook, N.Y., U.S.—died Aug. 24, 1967, Honolulu, Hawaii), American industrialist and founder of more than 100 companies including Kaiser Aluminum, Kaiser Steel, and Kaiser Cement and Gypsum.

In 1913 Kaiser was working for a gravel and cement dealer in Washington when one of his clients, a Canadian road-building company, went out of business. He got a loan to take over the company’s project and finished it with a profit. From 1914 to 1930, he built California dams, Mississippi River levees, and highways, including 200 miles of road and 500 bridges in Cuba, while establishing sand and gravel plants to supply his own materials. Between 1931 and 1945, he helped organize combinations of construction companies to build the Hoover, Bonneville, and Grand Coulee dams, as well as other large projects. To supply the more than 6,000,000 barrels of cement needed for the Shasta Dam, he erected a cement plant in Permanente, Calif., and a nine-mile conveyor belt across a mountain to the dam site in 1939.

During World War II he ran seven shipyards that used assembly-line production to build ships in as little as 4 ¹/₂ days. By the end of the war, his yards had produced 1,490 ships for the U.S. maritime commission. In 1941–42, he built the only integrated steel mill on the west coast of the United States, to make steel for his shipyards. He established Kaiser Gypsum in 1944. He bought up aluminum plants from Alcoa to supply his Kaiser-Frazer automobile business; but, because of an industry slump, Kaiser stopped making cars in 1953. By then Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation had become profitable. From 1954 to 1960, he directed construction of the Hawaiian Village resort centre, which was sold in 1961 to the Hilton chain for more than $21,000,000.

In 1942 Kaiser established the first health maintenance organization for his shipyard employees. A model for later federal programs, the Kaiser Foundation Medical Care Program built 19 hospitals providing preventive health care for more than 1,000,000 people.