Del E. Webb was born in Fresno, California, in 1899. He migrated to Phoenix in 1928 where he worked with a small contractor building a new grocery store. One day his paycheck bounced and his employer disappeared. The grocer asked young Webb to take over the job and Del E. Webb Construction Co. went into business. Its total assets: one cement mixer, ten wheelbarrows, twenty shovels and ten picks.
Young Webb was an ardent baseball fan and an accomplished baseball player. On weekends he played semi-professional ball. His love of baseball led him, in partnership with another person, to buy the New York Yankees.
The Del E. Webb Construction Co. obtained major government construction contracts for air bases and military installations in Arizona and Southern California during World War II. By the 1960's, the Del E. Webb Construction Co. was one of the largest in the United States.
The Webb development that overshadows all others is Sun City, the first major retirement community in the country - an idea that not only transformed the Phoenix area, but had a major effect on the sociology of the vast numbers of Americans who had or would eventually approach "retirement" age. Del E. Webb's Sun Cities are now home to over 64,000 residents coming together from 50 states and 50 foreign countries.
Del E. Webb was proud of the part he played in developing "active" retirement living. He said, "When I see what we've built, it's the most satisfying thing that's ever happened to me".
Bronze bust of Del E. Webb
in the Del E. Webb Memorial Library
at Loma Linda University
