Noted Builder Robert M. Golden Is Dead at 70

Funeral services will be held Wednesday for Robert M. Golden, a prominent San Diego builder who helped create much of San Diego’s skyline.

Golden died of cancer at his home in San Diego late Saturday. He was 70.

Golden was president and later chairman of M. H. Golden Construction Co., which built city landmarks such as the Civic Center in the downtown Community Concourse, the Mission Valley Center shopping mall, the Imperial Bank Tower and the West Terminal at Lindbergh Field.

Golden also was a philanthropist who gave money to the Timken Art Gallery, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Opera and San Diego Symphony. He was active at his alma mater, Stanford University, having served as president of the alumni association and as a member of the university’s board of governors. He also established a scholarship fund at the school in 1981.

Golden, who was born Sept. 18, 1920, in Salt Lake City, moved to San Diego in 1926 and graduated from Point Loma High School. He enlisted in the Army when he graduated from Stanford in 1941 and served as a second lieutenant in the infantry during World War II.

Golden returned to San Diego after the war and joined his father’s construction company, which was founded in 1927.

In 1955, at age 34, he was the youngest man to serve as president of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce and was voted the city’s “Outstanding Young Man of the Year.”

When his father retired a year later, Golden became company president. In 1976, his son, Morley R. Golden, became president, and Robert Golden stayed on as chairman and chief executive.

Robert Golden retired in 1982, when Centex Corp. of Dallas bought the company.

He loved to travel and often went to Europe, said his wife, Connie.

“We would go all over the place, and he would come back home and say San Diego was the most wonderful place in the world,” she said. “He contributed to it and watched it grow.”

He also enjoyed reading about politics and current events, his wife said.

“He was extremely bright, and he kept up on everything. Sometimes he was impatient with people who couldn’t keep up with him,” she said.

Golden’s first wife, Dorothy, died in 1974.

He is also survived by a son, Morley R. Golden of Sun Valley, Ida.; a daughter, Marilyn G. Kelley of Quincy, Calif.; his mother, Agnes Golden of San Diego; a brother, Kenneth Golden of San Diego, and four grandchildren.

After services at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Point Loma Presbyterian Church, inurnment will be at Cypress View Mausoleum.