Warren E. Fenzi, 87; Headed Copper-Mining Firm Phelps Dodge

Warren E. Fenzi, 87, a former president of the mining and manufacturing company Phelps Dodge, died Oct. 20 of undisclosed causes at his home in Santa Barbara.

Fenzi, who joined Phelps Dodge in 1937, helped develop the massive open-pit mine in Morenci, Ariz. The mine, which provided copper to the military during World War II, continues to be one of North America’s major copper-producing operations.

Fenzi supervised company operations in Arizona and New Mexico and mines in Peru, South Africa and Australia. He served as a Navy Seabee during World War II, then returned to Phelps Dodge, which named him president in 1975. He retired in 1980 and continued as a director until 1983.

Born in Santa Barbara in 1915, he earned a civil engineering degree from Caltech in Pasadena and completed an advanced management program at Harvard Business School.