National Academies Press: OpenBook

Memorial Tributes: Volume 4 (1991)

Chapter: Alden P. Yates

« Previous: Francis Louis VerSnyder
Suggested Citation:"Alden P. Yates." National Academy of Engineering. 1991. Memorial Tributes: Volume 4. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1760.
×
Page 329
Suggested Citation:"Alden P. Yates." National Academy of Engineering. 1991. Memorial Tributes: Volume 4. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1760.
×
Page 330
Suggested Citation:"Alden P. Yates." National Academy of Engineering. 1991. Memorial Tributes: Volume 4. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1760.
×
Page 331
Suggested Citation:"Alden P. Yates." National Academy of Engineering. 1991. Memorial Tributes: Volume 4. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1760.
×
Page 332

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

ALDEN P. YATES 1 928-1 989 BY WILLIAM W . MOORE ALDEN P. YATES, vice-chairman of the Bechtel Group, Inc. and chairman of its executive committee, died on April 12, 1989, at the age of sixty at the Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center in San Francisco after a valiant struggle against can- cer. Alden's life and career were closely tied to the Bechte} organization and to the engineering and construction in- dustry. His father, Perry Yates, was a veteran of the Hoover Dam project and was also an important member of the Bechte] executive team. Alden spent his early years in the construction environment of the Hoover Dam project where his father was a construction engineer. Alden became excited at an early age about "the wonderful tools we have to help bring positive change to the worlds." His father later became executive vice-president of Bechtel, and as his career pro- gressed the family traveled to various construction projects. Alden early had a summer job as a "junior expediter," which he described as "riding a bike around the warehouse and grabbing parts." This experience with engineering and construction life provided "the perfect construction business baptism." Alden earned his B.S. in civil engineering from Stanford in 1951 and was a member of Beta Theta Pi. Also while at Stanford, he met and married his wife, Dawn, and made many lifelong friends. 329

330 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES After serving as a lieutenant "iG" in the U.S. Coast Guard, Alden Yates began his thirty-five-year career with Bechtel in 1953. His first assignment was a field engineer at Pacific Gas & Electric's Morro Bay steam power plant in California. From that start he served in a broacI variety of projects in the power, civil, and mining fields throughout the world, steadily working his way up through the company. In 1970 he was elected a vice-president and thus became a partner in the privately held Bechte] organization. His responsibilities in the organization continued to increase through the 1970s. In 1976 he became manager of a Petroleum and Chemical Division based in Kuwait, and joined the board of directors of Bechte! the following year. When based in London in 1980, he was in charge of three Bechte] divisions and was elected to the company's executive committee. In November 1980 Alden Yates was elected president of Houston-based Bechte} Petroleum, Inc. and was elected in May 1983 to president and chief operating officer of its parent company, Bechte! Group Inc., replacing George P. Shultz. Mr. Yates and Mr. Shultz were the only two non- Bechte] family members to hold the presidency of the par- ent company. Alden Yates became chairman of Bechtel's executive committees in August 1984 and vice-chairman of Bechte] Group Inc. in 1989. Steve Bechtel, Jr. noted "we have lost a valued leader and a special friend. Alden has personified this company's idea of excellence, dedication, and teamwork. His contributions to the Bechte] organization and to the engineering profes- sion were significant and lasting." He also undertook per- sonal efforts to "fee! the pulse of the organization and hear what's on people's minds." When he heard too often that people felt unappreciated, he wrote in Bechtel's management notes that "in the pressure of these difficult times, most of us can forget to tell others that they have done a good job and are appreciated for their work. We should not take anyone for granted." He also noted that "a bright and prosperous course lies in our future if we choose to seek

ALDEN P. YATES 33 it out." He added, "the members of the Bechte] Organiza- tion are not only the key to winning today's jobs but they are also the key to achieving the continuous improvement that will ensure tomorrow's jobs." Outside of his career with Bechtel, Alden Yates was a major contributor to the engineering profession and to the communities where he lived and worked. The interests and welfare of the people working under his direction were always an important factor in his decisions and actions. Alden told the graduating seniors at Menio College, Palo Alto, that they should travel and "get out and see for your- seives who shares this planet with you, how they live, why they think as they do. We are increasingly dependent on each other throughout the world and the sooner we all realize that fact the better we can solve the social, political, and economic problems that surround us." Alden Yates was elected to the National Academy of En- gineering in 1986. He was also a member of the Conference Board, the advisory council of Stanford University School of Engineering; the California Business Roundtable; and the American Society of Civil Engineers. He was a director of SR] International; United Way of the Bay Area; the National Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc.; The San Fran- cisco Opera Association; and the Bay Area Council. He was a trustee of the Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center and served as chairman of the San Francisco Bay Area Sci- ence Advisory Board. Alden enjoyed spending weekends with his family at their ranch in Napa Valley of California where he played tennis and took an active interest in wine making, fly fishing, and golf. He is survived by his wife of thirty-eight years, Dawn; their six children, Steven, Michael, Jeffrey, Russell, Karen Weiss, and Patricia Mitchell, all of California; and six grandchildren. A memorial service for Alden was held April IS, 1989, at the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. \ \ \

Next: Appendix »
Memorial Tributes: Volume 4 Get This Book
×
Buy Hardback | $107.00
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF
  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!