PRO F I LE
Building a
legacy Henry W. Coil Jr., a longtime leader of the construction company that bears his name, is himself a Riverside treasure for his work ethic and civic-mindedness
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Written by Carla Sanders Photos by Gabriel Luis Acosta
here is an adage that recommends, “Do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” For more than half a century, Henry W. Coil Jr. has taken that to heart. “I have always enjoyed what I do,” said Coil, past president of Tilden-Coil Constructors Inc. of Riverside. “I still do.” This last phrase helps explain Coil’s continuing affection for the company he has helped guide since the early 1970s. Even though he turned over most of Tilden-Coil’s day-to-day operations to others in 1998, Coil, now 80, still comes to the office seven days a week year-round, and stays 10 to 12 hours. “I really enjoy putting things together. I still offer my two-bits worth. We all get along great.” Coil also is proud of the projects and work with which Tilden-Coil has been associated through the years. “We never failed to complete a job, and we never came in really late,” he says. Among the highlights have been freeway improvements, seismic retrofitting of the Riverside County Courthouse — “We took the whole thing apart, even the statues, and came in $2.5 million under budget,” he says, beaming — and a massive printing plant project in Seattle for $411 million, at 1988 prices. Coil’s start with the company was serendipitous, after a chance meeting with company founder Marshall
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| riversidethemag.com | april-may 2013
Tilden. In the spring of 1971, the two men, who were acquainted with each other, crossed paths at the Victoria Club in Riverside, where both were lunching. At the time, Coil was chief of plant engineering for Alcan Aluminum Corp. in Riverside, and Tilden was building custom homes. The former was looking to strike out on his own; the latter asked Coil to join him because he wanted to retire from the company, which he’d founded in 1938. Within two years, on his 65th birthday, Tilden did just that, leaving Coil at the helm. “Marshall was a character,” Coil recalled. “He was a stickler for quality” — a trait that continues at TildenCoil to this day. Heading the company was the culmination of years of hard work by Coil, whose story began in the town he’s always called home. The oldest of four boys, Coil was born at Riverside Community Hospital to an attorney father and a mother who was an accountant, a rarity at the time. His parents had met when his mother, whose family had moved from Canada to the Los Angeles suburb of Eagle Rock when she was 12, headed east to the accounting institute at Riverside Business College. His father was general counsel of California Electric Power (now part of Southern California Edison). He grew up in Riverside, and among his extracurricular activities was Scouting. He joined at age 9 as a Cub and progressed through the various levels: Webelo,