John Braun; Led Construction Firm

John Gilbert Braun, a financier and philanthropist who joined his father’s worldwide engineering and refinery construction company in 1934 and became president of C. F. Braun & Co. on the death of Carl F. Braun in 1954, died Monday.

A family spokesman said Braun was 79 and died after a lengthy illness in Santa Ynez, where he had lived since 1985.

Educated at UC Berkeley, the younger Braun lived most of his life in San Marino and Pasadena. He was a lifetime trustee of Caltech, a trustee of the Norton Simon Museum of Art, and a director of the Ryan Hill Research Foundation in Seattle. The Braun family’s relationship with Caltech dates to 1926 with the founding of Caltech Associates, a support group.

Braun is survived by his wife, Ruth, daughters Beverly Marsh and Palela Pesenti, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Contributions in Braun’s name may be made to Caltech.