Franklin Jay “Frank” Holcomb

Franklin Jay “Frank” Holcomb died June 15. He was 92.

Holcomb was born May 1, 1928, to Edgar Jay and Geraldine Ford Holcomb in Massena, New York. He graduated from Massena High School in 1946 and attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He spent 18 months aboard the USS Hank. His final Navy service was as an instructor for the Navy Supply Corps School.

His first civilian job was for Gulf Oil at its division office in Philadelphia. After arriving in Philadelphia in 1956, he met his future wife Jeanne Peggs. They were married in June 1958, and moved to Teaneck, New Jersey.  He studied for a degree in industrial engineering at Columbia University. In 1963, they moved to Palo Alto, California, where he worked for Control Data in software development. While at Control Data, he attended Stanford University as part of the Honors Cooperative Program. In 1967, he received an advanced degree in industrial engineering. A year later, the family moved to Livermore where Frank begin a 25-year career at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab.

While at LLNL, he worked in administrative data processing, the budget office, plant engineering and lasers, designing and building financial management systems. He was controller of the Nova Laser Construction Project. After the Nova project, he did financial system planning for the National Ignition Facility.

He was active in the Toastmaster’s Club, serving a term as president. He was the manager of a Little League baseball team and later served on the LLNL Recreation Association’s Board. After his retirement, he served on the executive board of LLNL’s UNCLE Credit Union.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Jeanne; son, Steven Holcomb; a daughter, Nancy Thompson (Brad); and grandchildren Trevor and Marissa Thompson.

Internment was at Memory Gardens in Livermore.