Page 11: of Marine News Magazine (May 2021)

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All images: The Dutra Group

To fully understand Bill Dutra and The Dutra Group, those times the dredge captain, the lever man on the dredge, you have to start from the beginning, and in that we mean the deck hands, the cooks, and the labor force was pretty looking at the Dutra family as it emigrated to California’s much family,” said Dutra. “You didn’t have the highways

San Joaquin Valley via covered wagons. Because when you that we have today, so you lived and you worked onboard.” talk to Bill Dutra today, via words and actions you can As a young man, while Dutra worked alongside his grand- see that he leans heavily on his roots, personal and profes- father for a short bit and his father, following in their foot- sional, from the hat that often sits upon his head—a nod steps was not a given. “I was not, shall we say, ‘a manageable to his grandfather and his in? uence to ensure he became individual’ in my earlier years,” remembers Dutra. “I did the ? rst Dutra to graduate college—to his strong af? nity not like going to school and I found a passion for the sea.” for the local San Joaquin Valley communities and families. The family business was in fact not passed down, as his

The Dutra name is synonymous with the construction grandfather started, then sold, the company, only to reen- and maintenance of the California Delta levee system, ter the dredging business later on with his son, Bill’s father.

with Antone Dutra starting in 1904, follow by his son, “I dropped out of high school at a very early age because

Edward Dutra in 1933 and followed by Bill, who in 1972 I wanted to be challenged by the sea and work on towboats at the age of 26 formed Dutra Construction Company, and in marine construction,” said Dutra.“I had a bit of a

Inc. based in Rio Vista, California. maverick in me in my earlier years. I always knew that I

Looking back, Dutra said “you have to remember that in had a passion [for the dredging business]. I was born into www.marinelink.com MN 11|