Edgar F. Kaiser papers, 1886-1981

Summary

Creators:

Kaiser, Edgar F. (Edgar Fosburgh), 1908-1981

Abstract:

The bulk of the papers were transferred to The Bancroft Library by Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp. and consist primarily of corporate files from Kaiser's tenure as president and chairman of the board of Kaiser Industries Corporation. Also included are records from his earlier career as vice president and general manager of Oregon Shipbuilding Corp. and Kaiser Company, Inc., followed by those from his tenure as president of Kaiser Motors Corp. and general manager of Kaiser-Frazer Corporation's automobile plant at Willow Run, Mich. Also included are personal papers given by Kaiser's family.

Extent:

Number of containers: 500 cartons, 32 volumes, 9 oversize folders, 1 box Linear feet: circa 600 9 digital objects (9 images)

Language:

Collection materials are in English

Background

Scope and content:

The bulk of the Edgar F. Kaiser Papers were transferred to The Bancroft Library by Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation and consist primarily of corporate files from Mr. Kaiser's tenure as president and chairman of the board of Kaiser Industries Corporation. Also included are records from his earlier career as vice president and general manager of Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation and Kaiser Company, Inc., followed by those from his tenure as president of Kaiser Motors Corporation and general manager of Kaiser-Frazer Corporation's automobile plant at Willow Run, Michigan. The collection was extremely well organized and, for the most part, original order was retained. Corporate files were supplemented by papers given by Kaiser's family for inclusion in Series 1: Personal Papers.

The sheer volume of the collection is a testament to the vast and complex nature of the Kaiser family's business undertakings. When considered in conjunction with the papers of his father, Henry J. Kaiser, which are also housed in The Bancroft Library, a fascinating picture emerges of the birth, growth, and eventual decline of one of the West's great 20th-century family business empires.

Edgar F. Kaiser inherited an industrial empire that at one time included over 100 Kaiser Companies and affiliates spread around the globe. After an early apprenticeship on some of the major western United States public works projects of the Depression years, Edgar Kaiser supervised Kaiser's shipbuilding operations in the Pacific Northwest during World War II, and then presided over an unsuccessful automobile manufacturing venture in Michigan in the decade following the war. As president and, later, chairman of the board, Edgar Kaiser led the Kaiser affiliated companies through an unprecedented era of growth during the 1960s, followed by a period of declining profits in the 1970s. This decade culminated in the sale of several companies, a decline in international projects, and in the voluntary liquidation of Kaiser Industries Corporation, the holding company, in 1977.

In his writings, interviews and speeches, Kaiser often reflected on the responsibility of American business, both at home and abroad; on the founding and growth of the Kaiser Companies; on his father's charismatic leadership style; and on his own role as advisor to American presidents in such areas as equal employment opportunity, urban housing, and satellite communications.

The collection provides rich source material for the study of the growth of the Kaiser Permanente Foundation and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, a unique prepaid health plan begun by Edgar Kaiser at the remote Grand Coulee Dam construction site in the late 1930s, and the post-war industrialization of the West, which was given impetus by the Kaiser-built shipyards, the Kaiser Steel plant at Fontana, California, and the manufacturing of building materials such as gypsum and cement, needed for the post-war housing boom in California. Also documented are related subjects such as urban renewal, affirmative action, on-the-job training, public transit, and corporate sponsorship for the arts in the San Francisco Bay Area and on a national scale, as well as the export of Kaiser technology to Pacific rim, Latin American, and African countries.

Biographical / historical:

Date	Event
1908	Edgar Fosburgh Kaiser born in Spokane, Washington, on July 29, the first child of Henry John and Bessie Fosburgh Kaiser. Attended grammar school in Seattle, Washington and began working on his father's road paving projects at age 12. Attended high school in Oakland, California.
1926-1930	Attended University of California, Berkeley, majoring in economics, but left one semester short of graduation to become superintendent on a natural gas pipeline project in Kansas and Oklahoma.
1931-1932	Managed pipeline projects in Arizona, New Mexico, Mexico, and Montana.
1932	Married Dorothy Sue Mead of Washington, D.C., on August 24.
1932-1933	Started as shovel foreman and became superintendent of canyon excavation for Six Companies, Inc., at Hoover (Boulder) Dam.
1934-1938	Named administrative manager of Columbia Construction Company's main spillway at Bonneville Dam (on the Columbia River).
1938-1941	Appointed project manager of the Grand Coulee Dam project in Washington by Consolidated Builders, Inc. Brought Dr. Sidney R. Garfield there to establish a comprehensive prepaid medical care program for workers and their families, the beginning of the Kaiser Health Plan, the world's first prepaid health maintenance organization.
1941-1945	Named vice president and general manager of Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation and Kaiser Company, Inc., with shipyards at Portland, Vancouver, and Swan Island. Kaiser again sponsored a prepaid health plan for shipyard workers, under the direction of Dr. Garfield, which opened to the general public in 1945.
1946-1954	Appointed general manager of Kaiser-Frazer Corporation automobile plant at Willow Run, Michigan and elected president of Kaiser Motors Corporation.
1954	Moved to the Oakland, California headquarters of the Kaiser Companies as the organization expanded, to share management responsibilities with his father, Henry J. Kaiser.
1956	Elected president of Kaiser Industries Corporation, the parent company, with his father as chairman of the board and his younger brother, Henry J. Kaiser, Jr., as vice president.
1959	Negotiated with labor attorney Arthur Goldberg for a settlement with United Steelworkers Union at Kaiser Steel's Fontana plant during the national steel strike. Helped create the Long Range Sharing Plan at the Fontana mill.
1961-1963	Served President John F. Kennedy as a member of the Missile Sites Labor Commission, the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, and as an incorporator of the Communications Satellite Corporation in 1962.
1961	Henry J. Kaiser, Jr. died in Oakland.
1966	Named National Chairman of United Nations Day by President Lyndon Johnson.
1966-1968	Selected by President Lyndon Johnson to head the President's Committee on Urban Housing, and named chairman of the board of incorporators of the National Corporation for Housing Partnerships.
1967	Henry J. Kaiser died in Honolulu on August 24. Elected chairman of the board of Kaiser Industries Corporation, head of all operating divisions, subsidiaries and affiliated companies (including Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation, Kaiser Steel Corporation, Kaiser Cement and Gypsum Corporation, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals), and a trustee of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
1969	Named Alumnus of the Year and awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree by the University of California, Berkeley. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Johnson for his contributions to the development of low and moderate income housing.
1970	Elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
1974	Sue Mead Kaiser died in Moscow on June 24.
1975	Appointed by President Gerald Ford to the President's Advisory Committee on Refugees. Married Nina McCormick, his long-time executive secretary, on February 1.
1977	Oversaw the voluntary liquidation of Kaiser Industries Corporation.
1978-1980	Designated Chairman Emeritus and honorary director of Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation and Kaiser Cement Corporation in 1978; of Kaiser Steel Corporation in 1979; and of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals in 1980.
1981	Died at Moffitt Hospital in San Francisco, California, on December 11.

Acquisition information:

The Edgar F. Kaiser Papers were given to The Bancroft Library by the Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation, Nina M. Kaiser, and Edgar F. Kaiser, Jr., in the years 1985 through 1987.

Physical location:

For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Rules or conventions:

Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

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