Engineering Distinguished Alum:  Larry Gates

"People who become successful should give back to their university, especially the state-supported ones that don't receive many outside donations" says Gates, who, along with his wife, Amy, has donated more than $100,000 to support the civil engineering students and programs at his alma mater.

DRC, an engineering design and consulting firm, continues to grow and prosper, working on a diverse group of projects that range from small one-acre businesses to giant 100-acre power centers. It currently employs well over 100 people and has branch offices in Anaheim Hills, Ontario, Corona, downtown Los Angeles, Valencia, Irvine and in Nevada. At Cal Poly Pomona, the Gateses sponsored the upgrading of the Infrastructure Design Laboratory, which is soon to be named the Larry and Amy Gates Infrastructure Design Laboratory. They also strongly support the award-winning student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), including funding the nationally ranked ASCE Concrete Canoe travel team that represents Cal Poly Pomona at regional and national levels.

"A lot of the competitive teams from other universities are fully funded," says Gates. "I want our team to be able to focus on building a better canoe, not worrying whether they could raise enough money to finance their entire project. The donation helped make the playing field a lot more fair."

The Gateses also have been instrumental in setting up two major scholarships at Cal Poly Pomona, the James Gates Endowment in honor of Gates' father and the Norman Dierker Memorial Scholarship Endowment in honor of a family friend.