John Francis “Skip” Igoe Jr.

At LaSalle High School, John met his wife and life partner of 59 years, Peggy. John played football and basketball, winning a city championship in his junior year. Education, however, was his true passion. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Villanova University in 1963.

From 1963 to 1968, John served in the U.S. Air Force, rising to the rank of Captain. He was stationed in Alaska where he worked on the highly classified SR-71 spy aircraft program and later oversaw major housing projects in California. After his service, he earned graduate degrees in civil engineering and construction management from Stanford and an MBA from Drexel, beginning a distinguished career that would span more than six decades.

John’s professional achievements included leadership roles at General Electric, Wilsey & Ham, Lincoln Property, NeXT, Octel, 3Com, PeopleSoft, Sares Regis Group of Northern California and Google. Among his many civic projects, he served as construction project manager for the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, a transformative development for the city’s South of Market district. He later spent 20 years as director and adjunct professor in Golden Gate University’s Project Management program, where a scholarship was established in his honor.

In the private sector, John guided major corporate real estate and campus developments, including work for NeXT with Steve Jobs and later at PeopleSoft, where he oversaw much of the Pleasanton campus. At Sares Regis, he led projects such as Palo Alto’s award-winning Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life and Symantec’s Culver City campus. In 2011, John joined Google as Director of Design and Construction.

He enjoyed playing a key role in supporting Google’s ongoing need for office space to expand, overseeing the development of more than 23 million square feet, including the groundbreaking Bay View Campus, the world’s largest net-zero building, and the innovative Timber building in Sunnyvale.

Beyond his career, John was deeply committed to education, faith, and service. He served two decades as Villanova’s West Coast Director of High School Recruitment, sat on the Alumni Board, and, with Peggy, established a scholarship for first-generation engineering students. He also held leadership roles on boards for the Archdiocese of San Francisco and local schools. In recognition of his service and impact, he received Villanova’s Distinguished Service Award and CoreNet Global’s Distinguished Leaders Circle honor.

Family was always John’s greatest pride. He and Peggy raised five children and were blessed with 13 grandchildren, who affectionately called him “Pop Pop.” Annual family trips spanned the globe—from Machu Picchu to the African savannas—while a 49-year Yosemite hiking tradition created memories as enduring as Half Dome itself.

John is survived by Peggy, their five children and spouses, and 13 grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, John Sr. and Margaret.

His funeral mass will be held at Saint Gregory’s church in San Mateo at 1:15 PM on Saturday, September 27th. A celebration of his life will be held in November.

In lieu of flowers, I kindly ask you to consider a gift to the John F. Igoe ‘63 Endowed Scholarship in Support of the Luckow Scholarship Challenge Program to provide financial support to academically talented full-time undergraduate students enrolled in the College of Engineering with demonstrated financial need.

To contribute, please visit: https://bit.ly/4pzGAlG