Orange-Based Firm to Share Science Grant : $250 Million Awarded for Antarctic Venture

The National Science Foundation awarded a six-year, $250-million contract Monday for support services in Antarctica to a joint venture between an Orange-based firm and a Massachusetts company.

Under the contract, Antarctic Support Associates will operate and maintain scientific stations, do construction, manage research ships and provide other assistance to the U.S. Antarctic Program.

Antarctic Support Associates is a joint venture between Holmes & Narver Services Inc. of Orange and EG&G; of Wellesley, Mass. The venture will have headquarters in Denver.

The Antarctic Program, funded by the science foundation, is the United States’ primary involvement in Antarctica, which holds 90% of the world’s ice and 10% of its land.

Involved Since ‘70s

Holmes & Narver, a subsidiary of Ashland Oil Co., has been involved in work in the Antarctic since the early 1970s, when it won a contract to provide support services for the U.S. Antarctic program.

The company was founded in Santa Ana in the early 1930s, and its first job was to help with the rebuilding of the city’s downtown, which had been badly damaged in the Long Beach earthquake of 1933.

Holmes & Narver is a major government contractor, both as a construction and engineering firm and as a manager of maintenance, repair and food services on military bases and other government installations. It also designs and builds commercial and industrial buildings.

The company has several hundred employees in Orange County and several thousand worldwide.