The Thomas H. Milbourne ’79 Engineering Scholarship is a merit-based scholarship awarded to an incoming, first year engineering student. It is renewable up to 5 years for a student who is either pursuing Wheaton’s 3-2 or 4-year engineering program. For a 3-2 student to receive the award for all 5 years, the student must remain enrolled as a student at Wheaton College.
Tom Milbourne was born in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, into a family that valued the Christian faith and a Wheaton College education. His entire immediate family—parents and brothers—are Wheaton alumni. Tom entered Wheaton’s 3-2, Dual Degree Engineering Program as a member of the 1979 class. He graduated with a B.A. in Liberal Arts Engineering from Wheaton College and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, as well as a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
During his 33-year career with General Electric, Martin Marietta, and Lockheed Martin Aerospace, Tom made several significant contributions. He was awarded a patent for developing an antenna system for producing variable sized beams used in GPS. Tom was the lead engineer of the communication subsystem for both NASA’s TERRA Satellite, the flagship of the Earth Observing System, and NASA-NOAA’s GOES-R Satellite (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite).
The Milbourne family is grateful to Wheaton College and the Dual Degree Engineering Program for their important role in Tom’s life and career. The family established the Thomas H. Milbourne ’79 Engineering Scholarship to promote preparation of Christian engineering students for careers marked by technical excellence, leadership and service.