Hugh Milton Holt

Upon graduation, Hugh Milton Holt joined NASA’s Langley Research Center as an electrical engineer. He served in increasingly more complex positions, including Deputy Director, Airborne Systems, where he directed a diversity of research and supervised 500 engineers. NASA appointed Milton to the Senior Executive Service in 1986.
Milton received numerous NASA awards, including the Leadership Medal for sustained leadership in flight electronics. The Smithsonian Institute and British Broadcasting Company honored Milton as a national hero for work on computers for Project Viking, featuring him in their television series, America’s Secret Space Heroes.
Milton served as author of three reports on Project Viking; received a patent for a speed controller; demonstrated internationally our nation’s Microwave Landing System using NASA’s aircraft; and chaired two global Digital Avionics Systems Conferences. He received a master’s degree in EE from UVA; completed course work for the doctorate in EE at ODU; and joined Phi Kappa Phi.
After retirement, Milton joined Technology Commercialization Center, becoming President in 2007. He successfully advocated to the General Assembly of Virgina establishment of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. He served on ODU’s ECE Industrial Panel; Board of Directors of the Virginia AeroSpace Business Association; and Advisory Board for ECPI’s ECE Program.