About Kiewit Foundation
The Foundation has continued solid financial support for the Arroyo Hondo Preserve, a project of The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County.
In keeping with the primary purpose, the Foundation also supports other land trusts and conservation organization such as:
- The California Rangeland Trust
- The Trust for Public Land
- The Nature Conservancy
- Hollister Ranch tidepool education program for elementary school students
- Carrizo Plain Conservancy
- and many others.
History
Ralph W. Kiewit Jr. was born in Nebraska in 1921 where is family created one of the country’s most eminent construction companies. He moved to southern California as a boy in 1931 where he became part of the Malibu surfing culture and lifeguard in the 1930s and 40s. Ralph later started his own construction company, building Southern California landmarks, including the Union Bank building in Sherman Oaks and the Shorecliff Towers in Santa Monica, as well as the San Souci in Waikiki and Hotel Bora Bora in French Polynesia. During World War II, he served in the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel, seeding a passion for flying that carried through his life. Kiewit spent time flying his own jet until he retired as a pilot when he was 87 years old. He died in 2013. Ralph married Oralee Abrams in 1947 and their only child, John, was born in 1948. Oralee was a fine artist, in the plein air tradition, focusing on the southern California coast, inland hills and deserts.
The John S. Kiewit Memorial Foundation
Ralph and Oralee became earlier supporters of the Arroyo Hondo Preserve which was established on the Gaviota Coast in Santa Barbara County in 2001, shortly after their Foundation began operation.
The Foundation has continued solid financial support for the Arroyo Hondo Preserve, a project of The Land Trust for Santa Barbara County. In keeping with the primary purpose, the Foundation also supports other land trusts and conservation organization such as the California Rangeland Trust, the Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy, Hollister Ranch tidepool education program for elementary school students, the Carrizo Plain Conservancy and many others.
The Foundation interprets its mission of protecting natural resources and environmental education in the “California Central Coast and or neighboring regions” as roughly the Coast and Transverse Ranges, from Malibu the southern San Joaquin Valley, Carrizo Plain, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties as well as the Northern Channel Islands.