John F. Shea, chairman of U.S. tunneling contractor J.F. Shea Co., who also diversified the family owned business into homebuilding and real estate development and management, died Oct. 18 in Pasadena, Calif., at age 96, according to an announcement.
Shea and cousins Peter Shea Jr. and Edmund H. Shea Jr., in 1958 dissolved the firm founded as a plumbing company in 1881 by their grandfather—which became part of the joint venture that built the Hoover Dam, and foundations for the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge—and reincorporated it, the announcement said.