Larry Gates

As the son of an Air Force colonel, Larry Gates spent his childhood in many places including Germany, England, Hawaii and Texas before his family settled in Redlands, California, during his junior high and high school years. After graduating in 1987 from Cal Poly Pomona with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, Gates worked for a decade for several engineering firms in Southern California during which time he also completed an executive MBA from Pepperdine University. Then, fulfilling a commitment he made to himself when he graduated from Cal Poly Pomona, Gates took a three-month sabbatical to backpack around the world. Energized and motivated upon returning from his trip, he founded DRC Engineering Inc. along with his fellow Cal Poly Pomona alumnus Warren Williams Jr. 

DRC Engineering, Inc. is an Anaheim Hills-based consulting, engineering and land-surveying firm. The company's projects have included The District at Tustin Legacy, Chino Spectrum Towne Center, and the Burbank Empire Center. The firm is currently involved in several large projects including the 500-acre Meridian Business Park at March Air Reserve Base, and the Renaissance Shopping Center in Rialto. Since its inception in 1997, DRC Engineering Inc. has employed many graduates from Cal Poly Pomona’s civil engineering department and currently supports future graduates by providing summer internships. 

Gates credits his education from Cal Poly Pomona as one of the major keys to his success. “My experience at Cal Poly Pomona was exceptional due to the great professors and the ability to learn both in the classroom and in the laboratories,” Gates says. “My confidence in the workplace came from the superior and practical education I received at Cal Poly Pomona. I always felt better-prepared and more knowledgeable than other engineers with degrees from competing universities throughout the country.” 

His wife Amy and he have been generous patrons of the College of Engineering for many years. Their patronage has included funding for the college’s teams in the America Society of Civil Engineers’ concrete canoe and steel bridge competitions, sponsoring upgrades to the Infrastructure Design Laboratory, and gifting to help upgrade the Hydraulics Laboratory and the Water Analysis Laboratory. They have also assisted in the endowment of three scholarships –– one in honor of Gate’s father, James Gates, one in honor of his late professor and close friend Don Wells, and one in honor of his late mentee, friend, and Cal Poly Pomona student Andrew Lawson. 

In 2014, Gates served as chairman of the Dean’s Leadership Board for Cal Poly Pomona's College of Engineering. Gates currently serves on the board of the Bourke Family Foundation, a charitable organization which provides lights to impoverished schools in Africa and is a member of the Orange County Gold Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization. He is an avid world traveler, mountaineer, skier and mountain biker.