civil engineering projects of the time. The company was involved in the build out of oil platforms in the North Sea, liquefied natural gas plants in Algeria, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, and also in the cleanup of the nuclear reactor site Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. The company's role in Boston's infrastructure projects, titled Big Dig, in the 1990s came into scrutiny, with the company having to pay to settle litigation over a ceiling collapse and leaky tunnels. Earlier, the company had been charged by the US Justice Department in 1976 of illegally complying with the Arab League boycott of Israel, and had also faced criticism for undertaking projects in Saddam Hussein's Iraq of the 1980s. During his leadership, the 1980s oil glut and the resulting plunge in oil prices resulted in reduced spend by the middle-eastern countries on infrastructure projects including petroleum pipelines, resulting in a significant impact to the company's business. In addition to retrenchments of about half of its 44,000 member large workforce, the company under Bechtel's leadership undertook financial engineering actions including taking part ownership in some of the infrastructure projects. During his time the company, over three decades, the company's revenues grew eleven-fold, and the company also pivoted from majority ownership residing within the family to a model that had majority ownership by managers outside of the family. He held 20 percent of the company shares and his net worth in 2021 was estimated by Forbes to be $2.9 billion. After his retirement from Bechtel Corporation, he headed the real estate company Fremont Group, which was also an early investor in Starbucks Corporation. He had also served as director on the board of General Motors and International Business Machines. Political appointments Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Bechtel to the President’s Committee on Urban Housing. Richard Nixon named him to membership on the National Industrial Pollution Control Council, the National Commission on Productivity, the Labor Management Advisory Committee, and the National Commission for Industrial Peace. Gerald Ford asked Bechtel to serve on the President’s Labor-Management Committee. Boy Scouts Bechtel became an Eagle Scout in 1940 and has been recognized by the Boy Scouts of America with both the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and the Silver Buffalo Award. Stephen's uncle Kenneth K. Bechtel was awarded the Silver Buffalo in 1950 and served as national president of the Boy Scouts of America from 1956 to 1959. The