Henry J. Kaiser - Post-World War II

Post-World War II

As a real estate magnate, Kaiser was the founder of the Honolulu suburban community of Hawaiʻi Kai in Hawaiʻi (where there is a public high school named in his honor) and Panorama City near Los Angeles.

In 1945, Kaiser partnered with veteran automobile executive Joseph Frazer to establish a new automobile company from the remnants of Graham-Paige, of which Frazer had been president. It would use a surplus Ford Motor Company defense plant at Willow Run, Michigan originally built for World War II aircraft production by Ford. Kaiser Motors produced cars under the Kaiser and Frazer names until 1955, when it abandoned the U.S. market and moved production to plants in Brazil and Argentina. In the late 1960s, these South American operations were sold to a Ford-Renault combine. In 1953, Kaiser purchased Willys-Overland, manufacturer of the Jeep line of utility vehicles, changing its name to Willys Motors. In 1963, the name was changed again to Kaiser-Jeep, which was ultimately sold to American Motors Corporation in 1970. As part of the transaction, Kaiser acquired a 22% interest in AMC, which was later divested.

Kaiser founded Kaiser Aluminum in 1946 with the lease and eventual purchase of three aluminum facilities from the United States Government. Over the ensuing decades, Kaiser Aluminum grew to become involved in virtually all aspects of the aluminum industry, including the mining and refining of bauxite into alumina, the production of primary aluminum from alumina, and the manufacture of fabricated and semi-fabricated aluminum products.

In 1948, Kaiser established the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, (also known as Kaiser Family Foundation), a U.S.-based, non-profit, private operating foundation focusing on the major health care issues facing the nation. The Foundation, not associated with Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Industries, is an independent voice and source of facts and analysis for policymakers, the media, the health care community, and the general public.

Kaiser Permanente Federal Credit Union was founded in 1952 and served employees of Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, the Permanente Medical Group, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. In September 2008, the The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) selected Alliant Credit Union, based in Chicago, Illinois, to purchase the assets of Kaiperm Federal Credit Union of Oakland, California. The purchase and assumption was completed on September 26, 2008.

Kaiser Federal Bank was originally founded in 1953 as a credit union to serve the employees of the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals in Los Angeles, California and converted to a federal mutual savings bank in 1999. Kaiser Federal Financial Group, Inc. is a Maryland corporation that owns all of the outstanding common stock of Kaiser Federal Bank. The stock of Kaiser Federal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the NASDAQ under the trading symbol "KFFG".

In the mid 1950s Kaiser asked William Besler to convert his 1953 Kaiser Manhattan to steam. Besler completed this in either 1957 or 1958. Kaiser did not like the remodeled car and left it with Besler.

Henry Kaiser spent much of his later years in Honolulu and developed an obsession with perfecting its urban landscape. He founded the Kaiser Hawaiian Village Hotel, today known as the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Kaiser also constructed one of the first commercially practical geodesic domes in the United States at this resort.