Life and Business
Fenning graduated with a degree in Business from USC before entering the armed services during WWII. He was discharged, but was still anxious to serve in the military and was accepted into an officer training program through the US Army Air Corps (now the Air Force), under which he served during World War II as a bombardier on a B-17 aircraft. Fenning was stationed in England during the war, and flew missions over Germany. He won a Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Air Medal 6 times.
After the war, Fenning came back to L.A. In the early 50's he met and married Dione Rose, the daughter of Charles Rose, one of the founding brothers of Cleveland Wrecking Company. A few years after their marriage in 1950, William Fenning took a job at Cleveland Wrecking Company. Fenning was appointed branch manager of the company's Los Angeles office in the late fifties. Throughout the 60's the Los Angeles branch of Cleveland Wrecking Company became one of the company's main profit centers. At that point, Fenning served as Executive Vice President in charge of the company's western U.S. operations. Fenning became the majority stockholder of Cleveland Wrecking Company in the early 1970s. William Fenning's son, Donald Fenning, joined the Cleveland Wrecking Company staff in 1975, and was later appointed as the company president in the early 1990s.
The home office of Cleveland Wrecking Company was in Los Angeles for the years of Fenning's tenure as President and CEO. Cleveland Wrecking company was acquired by Dames & Moore, a large engineering firm, in 1997. The Dames and Moore Corporation was then acquired by URS Corporation, and Cleveland Wrecking then became a part of the URS Corporation's Contracting Division, who retained Mr. Fenning as an executive adviser and consultant for several years.
Fenning retired from his last position at Cleveland Wrecking Company in 2005, and currently lives in Los Angeles, CA, with his wife.
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