Parsons history

The company engineered a sulfur recovery plant--which produced sulfur from hydrogen sulfide--in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for Consolidated Chemical Industries, Inc. in 1951.

In 1958, the company began the first of many airport projects in the United States and around the world with the design and development of a large terminal in Saudi Arabia.

The purchase of Anaconda-Jurden Associates in 1961 brought significant involvement in mining and metallurgy.

At that point RMPCo. had become one of the nation's largest engineering and construction firms, with projects totalling $1.2 billion in 1968.

A $60 million natural gas processing plant engineered and constructed by the company in Alberta for Chevron Standard Limited in 1969 included the world's largest single sulfur recovery unit.

However, despite these apparently promising developments, demand for construction services was down in the early years of the decade, and RMPCo.'s revenue fell sharply, from $4.6 million in 1971 to $2.1 million the following year.

In 1974, Parsons opened the first part of its headquarters in Pasadena.

In 1976 the joint venture company Saudi Arabian Parsons Limited was founded to help administer projects and pursue other opportunities in the Middle East.

In 1977 RMPCo. acquired two established engineering firms--De Leuw, Cather & Company of Chicago, and S.I.P., Co., based in Houston.

Approved by shareholders on September 19, 1978, the reorganization divided RMPCo. into two separate corporations, although both were still owned by the same stockholders.

In 1980, for example, Parsons was involved in almost 270 projects in 31 different countries.

In October of 1984 The Parsons Corporation returned to private ownership as a result of a $560 million buyout by the Employee Stock Option Plan.

One suit, brought by employees in 1985, claimed that the purchase was a "breach of fiduciary responsibility, misuse of corporate assets, and a termination of predecessor plans," according to the Wall Street Journal.

The strategy also included the creation of a new global business development unit designed to increase Parsons' international revenues, which by 1996 accounted for just 30 percent of overall revenues.

In 2004, a $29.5 million contract was given to both Parsons and Gilbert Southern/Massman Construction to redo a portion of the Escambia Bay Bridge near Pensacola, FL after Hurricane Ivan made landfall and knocked off 58 spans of the original bridge and misaligned 66 other spans.