Inspirational Quotations by Henry J. Kaiser (American Industrialist)

Henry John Kaiser (1882–1967) was an American industrialist. He built his small construction firm into a highly diversified construction conglomerate consisting of 82 companies with assets exceeding $2.7 billion. His company took on millions of dollars of highway and bridge construction in addition to several dams, levees, and pipelines in the United States, Canada, and Cuba.

Born in Sprout Brook, New York, Kaiser dropped out of school in the eighth grade. In 1914, he founded the Henry J. Kaiser Company, which successfully won contracts and built roads in British Columbia, California, Washington, and Idaho. He made a fortune on government contracts before and after the war—his company built the Boulder, Hoover, Bonneville, Grand Coulee, and Shasta Dams. The earnings from building Boulder Dam alone surpassed $10 million.

When the United States entered World War II, Kaiser used his company’s construction skills to shipbuilding. By 1945, his company had built 1,490 vessels at record speeds. He also launched the first integrated steel mill on the West Coast and a major aluminum company. His postwar ventures involved automobiles, prefabricated housing, and helicopters.

Kaiser’s lasting achievements include the employee health care plan and 19 hospitals that he founded. He first offered insurance for his employees in 1942 and made it public in 1945—Kaiser Permanente became the largest privately sponsored health plan in the world.

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