George Clarence Milligan

EAGLE ROCK – George Clarence Milligan, 91, passed away in Eagle Rock (Los Angeles) California  Saturday, December 2, 2017. He was born in Solon, Ohio, on January 4, 1926, to the late George Clyde Milligan and Anna Helena Green Milligan.  He later lived in the Coshocton Area and Graduated High School in Conesville, Ohio, in 1943. After spending two years in the Navy, he returned to the Ohio State University and completed his degree in Electrical Engineering. He worked for General Electric at several locations before returning to the Ohio State University to complete graduate studies.  Then, in 1956, he took a position at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where he worked on the space program’s cutting edge Ranger missions which helped teach us how to put a spacecraft into low Earth orbit and eventually into Lunar orbits. From the Ranger projects George moved to the Mariner projects and early deep space exploration including the first successful flyby missions to another planet, Venus. Later Mariner projects visited Mars. And Mars was again in George’s future as he also participated in the JPL Viking program which landed the first ever craft on Mars and sent back the first images from the surface in 1976. After helping to explore the inner planets, George joined the team that sent the Voyager crafts by the outer planets on a grand tour of our solar system and now those crafts still carry the efforts of George and many others into interstellar space. Numerous other projects also occupied George’s time at JPL which lasted 37 years.

Though he had his work in space he never forgot he came from a farming community and maintained a variety of gardens around his home for many years. He was also very popular with the farmers who show up from all around Southern California to sell produce on Saturdays in Pasadena. Though the cultures are different the farming brings us together.

He met Harriet who eventually married him on Thanksgiving Day in 1960. He is survived by his daughter Nancy and his son John. He was preceded in death by his wife Harriet, a sister, Mary Jane and three brothers, Harry, Benny, and Floyd.  A memorial service at Conesville United Methodist Church is planned for a later date.

Category: Obituaries