UCSB Engineering

Milt and Marilyn Honea with Matthew Tirrell, Richard A. Auhll Professor and Dean

Milt Honea has generously given a major gift to the College of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara enabling the College to renovate two of its connecting undergraduate student computer labs.

This full renovation of the two undergraduate student computer labs, namely the Computer Science Instructional Lab and the Engineering Computing Infrastructure Lab, will include new finishes (carpet and paint), new furniture and new electrical and network wiring. Construction began on June 16, 2008, and is scheduled for completion in time for the start of Fall quarter, September 25, 2008. This renovation would not have been possible without the generous support of Honea.

Honea is a dedicated friend and supporter of the College of Engineering. In 2001 he joined the board of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Engineering Management (CEEM) and has also served on the College of Engineering Dean’s Cabinet. In addition to his role as a volunteer, Honea has been generously donating wine from his family vineyard, Honea Vineyards, to support College of Engineering events.

Honea earned a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA with high honors from Harvard’s Graduate School of Business in 1958. He built a stellar career in management that spanned ten different industries over forty years, where his specialty was start-up companies along with turning around businesses that had fallen on hard times.

Upon retirement from the energy business in 1997, Honea returned to California and established Honea Vineyards in Los Olivos. He and his wife, Marilyn, live in Santa Barbara and have three children and ten grandchildren.