Many years ago, Mr. Delbert Eugene “Del” Webb’s firm, Del E. Webb Construction Company, had its humble beginning in Phoenix, Arizona, with hammers, saws and willing hands as the only tools. Since then it grew to a large, internationally respected organization, the creator of hospitals, schools, hotels and motels, industrial plants, military installations, office buildings, shopping centers and high-quality homes.
During those years when his company was building America from coast to coast, Mr. Webb had a never-diminishing dream: to create a community for America’s retired citizens with attractive, modestly priced homes and endless facilities for their recreational and creative activity, the whole based upon an entirely new perspective toward retirement living… A new, active way-of-life.
Only a builder of the magnitude of Del Webb, with a faith and purpose as strong as his, could have made it all come true so perfect in concept, so complete in every detail, as he did in January, 1960, opening of Sun City in Arizona…and continuing to do so with California’s Kern City and new Florida-located Sun City.
With the initial introduction of his concept of active retirement, Mr. Webb said, “Concrete, steel and lumber can make buildings, but people make the community. Together, we realize a way of life unprecedented in America.” And what a very special kind of people they are, those thousands of retired Americans who have been attracted to this new idea of active retired living and together have found a new pride in living…a pride in knowledge that here is a community conceived and designed exclusively for them, a pride in each other and their interesting life…and most important, a pride in themselves as happy, interesting people with a purpose in living. These concepts are still relevant and living here in Kern City today!