Harold Frank (1924-2012) is not exactly a household name in tri-county business circles. But the region’s prowess in growing technology companies owes a lot to this electrical engineer from Washington state who migrated to the South Coast after service in World War II.

In 1957 he founded Applied Magnetics in Goleta using a tape-recording device to gather data for the oil and gas industry.

The company grew to be a major employer in the region, and much of our area’s development as a hub for data and  signal processing companies came about through Frank’s efforts to foster talented young graduates from UC Santa Barbara. After a brush with bankruptcy in the late 1990s, Applied Magnetics was reborn as IMT and it continues to operate in Goleta. Several years ago, UCSB’s legacy engineering building was renamed Harold Frank Hall in recognition of his decades of support.

In keeping with Frank’s tradition of support for a new generation of technologists, the family has requested that donations be sent to the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara or charities supporting youth.