Hechtman, Henry Albert

Born in Los Angeles in 1882, Henry Albert Hechtman was the son of A. J. Hechtman and Carrie C. (Van Matre) Hechtman, whose father was an 1849 California pioneer. Hechtman studied electrical engineering and accounting at Throop Polytechnic, Stanford University, and the Van der Naillen School in San Francisco. He spent seven years practicing electrical engineering across the West and Mexico, followed by a brief period in San Francisco real estate, before relocating to Fresno in 1906 to serve as track foreman and later manager of the Fresno Irrigated Farms Company.

In 1914, Hechtman transitioned into public service as Deputy County Auditor, subsequently being appointed financial agent and county statistician for Fresno County in 1915. Married in 1905 to Gertrude Ganser, with whom he had two sons, Jack and Jim, Hechtman was also an active viticulturist who developed a twenty-acre Thompson Seedless vineyard in the Dakota Colony. Politically active in the Democratic Party, he held memberships in multiple civic and fraternal orders, including the Masons, the Shrine, the Elks, and the Odd Fellows.