Seymour Joseph Honeycutt

Seymour J. Honeycutt, a long time resident of Redondo Beach, CA and currently a resident of Pala, CA, passed away on June 13, 2018, at the age of 97. He was born on a railroad car in Luling, Louisiana on August 23, 1920 to Frank Gilbert and Katie Bertha Honeycutt.

He leaves his wife of 49 years, MiJa Song Honeycutt; his son, Alan Honeycutt and his wife, Janie, grandchildren, Sarah and Alex; daughter, Linda Tucker, grandchildren Amy, Brad, Brent, Matthew; and daughter Judy Upton and her husband, George, grandchild Robyn; and 8 great grandchildren.

Seymour’s earliest years were spent in Louisiana where his father worked as a railroad superintendent. In 1928, the family moved to Dallas, Texas, where he attended Woodrow Wilson High School. After graduating high school he attended Southern Methodist University and worked briefly for Dallas Power and Light and Schlumberger oil company as a doodlebug.

Seymour’s military journey began in 1938 when he joined the Citizens Military Training Corps and was stationed at Camp Bullis, Texas. In 1939, with the start of WW2 in Europe, he went north to Canada to join the Royal Canadian Airforce. In 1940, he returned to the US and enlisted in the Marine Corps. After the US entered WW2, he joined the Merchant Marines as a radio operator and sailed from the Eastern Seaboard to Murmansk Russia delivering war supplies. At the end of the War he joined the Air Force Reserve and served until 1952.

In 1945 Seymour married Louise Cowart and had daughters Linda and Judy. He began his post war career working in the aerospace industry for Lockheed, Convair, Grumman, NASA, McDonnel Douglas and Hughes. Some career highlights include his work as a test engineer on the Discoverer Program, the first space reconnaissance program; the Polaris Program, the US Navy’s first launch of a submerged ballistic missile; and the NASA Apollo 1 program. As he said “We didn’t have a book. We wrote the book.”

In 1969, he was remarried to MiJa Song in Seoul Korea and had a son, Alan. He finished the last years of his aerospace career with Hughes Aircraft while living in Redondo Beach. He retired in 1988 moving to Pala where he farmed and tended to his trees until he returned to the Lord.