Author Topic: KBR at 100: From mules to Mars landings  (Read 388 times)

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KBR at 100: From mules to Mars landings
« on: June 17, 2019, 12:07:10 pm »
Houston Chronicle by  Sergio Chapa June 14, 2019

Storied Houston company KBR began with teams of wagons and mules to pave rural roads. Today, it’s helping NASA return to the Moon and put a man on Mars.

Over the past 100 years, KBR has grown into a global company with more than 36,000 employees around the world and nearly $5 billion of annual revenue. Its current form came together in the 1998 merger between New York engineering firm M.W. Kellogg and Houston construction company Brown & Root.

Whether as Brown & Root or KBR, the company built some of most iconic landmarks in Houston and the Lone Star State including Minute Maid Park, Rice Stadium, the Gulf Freeway, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Mansfield Dam and the Lone Star Steel Mill.

It was once a subsidiary of oil field service giant Halliburton. But KBR parted ways with its former parent company in 2007 following a series of scandals and congressional investigations related to its no-bid contracts and conduct in the second Gulf War in Iraq. The Houston company survived those scandals and is spending 2019 celebrating its centennial.

KBR’s Notable Projects

Over the past 100 years, KBR’s predecessor company Brown & Root has built some of most iconic landmarks in Houston and the Lone Star State.

0000 Minute Maid Park

0000 Rice Stadium

0000 Gulf Freeway

0000 NASA’s Johnson Space Center

0000 Mansfield Dam

0000 Lone Star Steel Mill

KBR Through The Years

Houston information technology and construction company KBR is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2019. Brown & Root, one of KBR’s two predecessor companies, was founded in 1919 when teams of mules and wagons were used to repair roads in rural Texas. Now with more than 36,000 employees in 40 nations, the company closed 2018 with a $281 million profit on more than $4.9 billion of revenue.

1919

Herman Brown and brother-in-law Dan Root start paving roads in Central Texas

1922

Herman's brother, George Brown joins the company

1926

Brown & Root opens office in Houston.

1929

Dan Root dies

1936

Company wins bid to build the Marshall Ford (now Mansfield) Dam northwest of Austin, kindles relationship with freshman Congressman Lyndon Baines Johnson

1940

Browns win $90 million contract to build naval training center in Corpus Christi, their first big military project

1946

Company launches its petroleum & chemical division

1947

Firm builds an offshore oil rig 10 miles off the Louisiana coast, the first successful rig that far at sea

1961

Company awarded design contract for Manned Spacecraft Center at Clear Lake, home to NASA

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/texas-inc/article/KBR-at-100-From-mules-to-Mars-landings-13999117.php