Fluor's roots extend back to the turn of the 20th century, when a family of Swiss immigrants set up a construction and roadgrading business in the Western United States. Over time, that business evolved, first in 1912 as the Fluor Construction Company, then over time as the Fluor Corporation, by which it is known today. Over the decades, Fluor has stretched its expertise across industries and around the world. Today, it is active in more than 25 industries on every inhabitable continent.
From the Buddha Tower in the 1920s to the Alaska Pipeline in the 1970s to the Escondida mining operation in Chile in the 1990s, Fluor has been representing the forefront in innovation in engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance, let by visionaries and a passion for building along socially responsible lines. Fluor's story continues today, with new projects rising around the world that propel economies, provide employment, and raise standards of living.
Emigrating from Switzerland, the Fluor family settles in Wisconsin, finding work in construction.
1880 - Moving from their ancestral home in Switzerland, the Fluors, a family of master builders, settle in the western United States.
1890 - Eventual Fluor founder John Simon Fluor Sr. sets up the Fluor Brothers Construction Company with two brothers in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Fluor quickly builds a reputation for innovation and precise engineering and construction work.
1912 - John Simon ("Si") Fluor Sr. founds Fluor Construction Company in Santa Ana, California.
1915 - First oil and gas industry contract. Fluor is hired by the Southern California Gas Company to build meter shops and an office building.
1919 - Hired to build compressor station. Fluor receives a significant contract to build a compressor station for the Industrial Fuel Supply Company.
1920 - "Be Sure with Fluor"
Fluor Construction Company expands into oil and gas, building plants and patenting technologies.
1921 - Fluor's "Buddha Tower" a water-cooling tower named after the Buddhist shrines it resembles, represents a radical advance in the cooling of water.
1922 - Fluor is contracted for a 10,000-gallons-per-day natural gasoline plant for the Richfield Oil Company at Signal Hill, California.
1924 - Fluor incorporates as company employment reaches three figures.
1925 - Fluor constructs its first gas plant project for the Sandoma Gas Company in Santa Fe Springs, California, a major step in helping wildcatters harness the oil boom.
1926 - Fluor introduces its patented Air-Cooled Muffler and Gas Cleaner.
Fluor expands oil and gas operations beyond California, as far as the Persian Gulf.
1930 - Panhandle Easter Pipeline Company hires Fluor to construct compressor stations for a pipeline between Panhandle, Texas and Indianapolis, Indiana.
1932 - Fluor awarded its largest contract to date - $100,000 - building a refining unit for Shell Oil Company in Wood River, Illinois.
1933 - Fluor secures its first overseas contract for work in the Persian Gulf, building cooling towers at a refinery under construction at Bahrain Island.
1933 - Fluor family members mortgage their homes.
Increasing tenfold during World War II, Fluor diversifies into the power and chemical industries.
1940 - Fluor is selected by the Sinclair Oil Company to design and install a sulfuric acid alkylation plant in its Richfield refinery in Watson, California.
1941 - Fluor's Trust Fund set up as a profit-sharing fund to provide retirement benefits to employees, establishing an industry landmark.
1943 - Fluor assist U.S. Atomic development at Hanford, Washington site.
1944 - Peter Fluor and John Simon "Si" Fluor Jr. take over management of Fluor.
1947 - Fluor takes on major expansion of Aramco facilities in Saudi Arabia.
Fluor leads the way with a R&D laboratory in Whittier, California, developing new technologies.
1951 - Fluor introduces the use of scale models for planning out their engineering and construction projects.
1952 - Fluor establishes the Fluor Foundation, a program for corporate contributions to charitable, education, and civic causes.
1955 - Fluor completes design and construction of the Dhahran Air Base in Saudi Arabia for the U.S. Air Force.
1957 - Fluor Corporation stock is made available on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange.
1959 - Fluor is selected by the Office of Saline Water to design a desalination demonstration plant near San Diego, California.
Chemicals, mining, and metals industries become new Fluor business centers.
1961 - Fluor wins contract to install 18 Titan II missile sites, a nuclear test reactor for the Atomic Energy Commission, and specialized equipment at 9 Atlas missile pads
1962 - J. Robert Fluor, Si's grandson, becomes CEO of Fluor Corporation.
1965 - Fluor engineers and constructs the world's first all-hydrogen refinery (95,000 barrels per day) in Kuwait for Kuwait National Petroleum Corporation. It is the world's largest hydrogen plan and the first large commercial H-Oil unit.
1967 - Fluor diversifies into offshore drilling and construction business, eventually creating Fluor Drilling Services (later Fluor Offshore Solutions).
1968 - Fluor builds the first hydrocracker with all centrifugal compressors for makeup hydrogen for American Oil Company in Texas City, Texas.
Fluor moves into mega-projects and focuses on international natural resources industries.
1972 - Fluor is selected to design and build the mainline pumping stations and Valdez terminal for facilitating flow of crude oil through the Alyeska (Trans-Alaska) Pipeline.
1973 - Fluor designed and engineered the world's first totally offshore plant for the recovery, storage, and loading of natural gas, liquids for Atlantic Richfield.
1975 - Fluor receives its largest contract to date, a project for Aramco valued at over $5 billion, for engineering, procurement, and project and construction management assistance for a major part of a gas-gathering treatment and transmission program in Saudi Arabia.
1977 - Fluor acquires Daniel International Corporation, a South Carolina industrial contractor, swelling its global employee ranks to more than 20,000.
1977 - Fluor completed the first major modular project for Saudi Petrochemical.
Fluor continues to grow.
1981 - Fluor acquires St. Joe Minerals Corporation, a natural resource firm with substantial positions in iron ore, coal, oil and gas, lead, zinc, and silver. This raises Fluor assets from $1.9 to $4.7 billion.
1981 - Fluor constructs the first large-scale commercial liquid fuels-from-coal plant known as SASOL II in Secunda, South Africa, eliminating South Africa's dependency on imported gas.
1987 - Fluor is named the number-one engineering and construction company in the United States by Engineering-News Record, the first of many such honors in years to come.
1989 - Fluor designs and constructs one of the world’s largest copper mines in the driest place on earth, the Minera Escondida project in the Atacama Desert of Chile.
Fluor expands overseas with major petrochemical, infrastructure, and environmental projects.
1991 - Fluor builds the largest independent power plant ever built in the U.S. with a 663-megawatt production capacity for Diamond Energy, Inc. in Hanover County, Virginia.
1992 - Fluor takes on a significant environmental challenge when the Department of Energy awards it a $4 billion cleanup of former uranium production facilities in Fernald, Ohio.
1993 - Fluor and ICA Corporation of Mexico form joint venture ICA Fluor Daniel, providing engineering, procurement, and construction services in Mexico.
1993 - Fluor trains over 14,000 workers to help build the Rayong refinery for Shell in Thailand.
1996 - Fluor wins $5 billion contract to manage one of the largest and most complicated environmental cleanup efforts at the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford, Washington site
Fluor expands U.S. government business and strengthens operations and maintenance capabilities.
2002 - Alan L. Boeckmann is named chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Fluor.
2005 - Fluor mobilizes 4,500 workers to support FEMA in aiding the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
2006 - Fluor completes massive cleanup of Fernald site years ahead of schedule, saving taxpayers billions.
2007 - Fluor celebrates 50 years of being listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
2008 - Fluor was awarded the world's largest polysilicon plant in China valued at $1 billion.
2012 - Fluor celebrates the company's founding 100 years ago.