Born February 23, 1885, near Kenney, Illinois, on his family's homestead by Salt Creek, his early life was a tough one. Shortly after losing his mother to pneumonia when he was only four,  he contracted appendicitis. He survived, but only after a long convalescence. That was the summer when the Bates and Rogers construction company from Chicago came to build a railroad bridge over Salt Creek. The doctor suggested Harry be put outdoors in the sun and air, so his father made a cot out of an old spring wagon and put it in his grandfather's yard. Harry would spend the days watching the bustle of construction.

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The job superintendent took notice of this young lad, befriending him. Later, when Harry was looking for work, the superintendent got him a job with Bates and Rogers, who moved him to Idaho. But always an ambitious young man, Harry wanted his own company. In 1912, he co-founded the Morrison-Kundsen Company with Morris Knudsen. Knudsen brought $600, some horses, and wheel barrows and Morrison brought "plenty of guts," which was his main selling point to Knudsen. Mr. Morrison had more than guts, however. His career was a study in loyalty and faith in the people he hired.

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Morrison-Knudsen went on to build big things: dams, bridges, tunnels, railroads, highways, pipelines, airports, military bases, space centers—an astounding inventory of structures on every continent of the globe. Admirals, kings, shahs, presidents, and business leaders all over the world trusted him to handle the largest, the most sensitive, and the most challenging construction jobs the world had ever seen. Mr. Morrison's many construction achievements garnered him the Time Magazine cover on May 3, 1954. They called him "the man who had done more than anyone else to change the face of the earth."