Some of the projects executed under his leadership of the company included King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh as well as Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia as well as oil platforms in the North Sea, liquefied natural gas plants in Algeria, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates.

[2] In 1946, he graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering, where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi, and married Elizabeth "Betty" Mead Hogan, a Berkeley alumna.

While he initially wanted to enter into home building, he was convinced by his father by showcasing Bechtel Corporation's global projects in a three week trip.

[2] 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.

[2] 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.

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.

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.

[13][14] Stephen and Betty's largess also extended to Berkeley's International House, Mills College, Achievement Rewards for College Scientists, the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet, the Head Royce School, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Royal Horticultural Society, the American Friends of the Royal Academy Trust, the Nature Conservancy, the Royal Oak Foundation, the Huntington Library, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

In 1998, he and his son Riley were presented with the Honor Award from the National Building Museum for their company's contributions to the built environment.

[2][19] He was a nature enthusiast and hiker who had once made the trek to the Everest base camp and had also hiked the John Muir Trail over a 211 mile course.