John Benjamin Millsap was born in Marlow, OK, on August 8, 1908, and raised in Susanville, CA. After graduating from high school, he attended California Polytechnic Institute. In 1932, he was among the first to graduate from the Hancock College of Aeronautics in Santa Maria, CA. Hancock College was originally formed in 1928 to offer formal training to pilots and mechanics to support the developing air transport business in the US and to help bring order to the then reckless barnstorming image of the aviation profession. One requirement at Hancock College was to build and fly one's own airplane. The flight had a successful landing in a cow pasture but Millsap had to quickly build a straw barrier around the craft to keep the cattle from licking the glue from the wings. Millsap loved aviation and all things aeronautical, and his career in aviation spanned 40 years. From 1936 until his retirement in 1972, he worked with Pan American Airways, first on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, then at Mills Field (San Francisco International Airport), and lastly at Miami International Airport. In 1940, under contract with the Department of the Navy, he served as chief mechanic on the Clipper ships in the Pacific. Mr. Millsap died in 1972 at the age of 83.
Profile submitted by his children, John Edgar Millsap and Mary Ann Millsap, in his memory and in memory of his wife of more than fifty years, Mariam "Billie" Boyden Millsap.