Milhouse Delivers Powerful Speech at IL-ASCE Dinner Gala

On Thursday, October 13, 2016 President/CEO of Milhouse Engineering & Construction, Inc., Wilbur C. Milhouse III received the Citizen Engineer of the Year award at the Illinois Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (IL-ASCE) Annual Dinner Gala. Celebrating the IL-ASCE’s 100th anniversary, Wilbur was one of ten civil engineers honored for their pivotal contributions and exceptional projects throughout the year. Wilbur’s speech delved into more pressing topics that impact both himself and the community. He addressed the city’s homicides among African-Americans and the challenges minority businesses face in attaining certain agency contracts.

“The number of members that we have in our organization [ASCE], which is 3,400, is actually the number of people that were shot in Chicago this year…579 of them died. Of those individuals, 449 of them were African-American,” stated Wilbur. “So, as you can probably tell, that means something to me. Being an African-American growing up on the south side of Chicago… [it] affects me personally.”

Wilbur upholds his vision to be a positive impact through the efforts of his private foundation, Milhouse Charities. The foundation’s mission is to advance the academic achievement and opportunities for minorities and other underrepresented youth, by supporting scientific and educational organizations focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

In addition to addressing the mass homicide rates in the city, Wilbur covered issues relevant to engineering professionals. He disclosed the verity of a specific agency’s lack of contracts awarded to Minority Business Enterprises (MBE) over the past two years. Since 2015, this agency has distributed over $841 million in contracts and just “1% of the [prime] contracts… went to African-American and Hispanic firms,” attested Wilbur. In that time, “Hispanics got zero [contracts] and African-Americans got a whopping one contract, for $10 Million.”

“I hope that each and every one of you would say a little something to the individuals that make these decisions; that only 1% [of contracts] would go to two different groups that embody 60% of our population… It just doesn’t make sense,” said Wilbur.

Closing to a standing ovation, Wilbur’s message was clearly an imperative for change.