Hall of Fame Spotlight Series: Highlighting Larry Velie

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Editor’s note: Dan Feinberg continues his series on the Global Electronics Association Hall of Fame, spotlighting the achievements of past Hall of Fame members.

Many who have contributed significantly to the Global Electronics Association (formerly IPC)  and our industry have been awarded the Association’s Raymond E. Pritchard Hall of Fame (HOF) Award. Though many early HOF members have passed away and are unknown to today’s membership, their contributions still resonate. This special series on Hall of Fame members provides a reminder of who was honored and why. As a bonus, for those who are still around, we get to find out what these talented individuals are up to today.

This month, we’re featuring Larry Velie, an outstanding contributor to the electronics industry and printed circuit board manufacturing for almost three decades. In my humble opinion, he is one of the most deserving in the exclusive club of Association Hall of Famers.

Larry was chair of the Technical Activities Executive Committee from 1986 to 1988 and president of IPC (now the Global Electronics Association) in 1990. He also started and led two round-robin test programs: one studying leading-edge technology and the other looking at and working to improve the reliability of small plated-through-holes. As IPC president, he launched the Designers Council, formed the PWB Presidents Management Council Steering Committee in 1991, and represented IPC during the formation of the original World Electronics Circuits Council.

Larry founded Velie Circuits in Costa Mesa, California, in 1982 and was the chief technology officer. Anyone who did business with him—whether raw materials, laminate, or a process chemical supplier to Velie Circuits—quickly learned to respect Larry’s understanding of the processes and materials used to manufacture PCBs. If you wanted to show Velie Circuits a new product, you had to be ready to answer questions in detail and directly to Larry himself.

Process patents were granted in his name, including “Apparatus for depositing solder on PCB terminal pads, controlling thickness,” and “Plating high aspect ratio holes in circuits,” in addition to several others where he was named as a contributor or co-inventor. In 1993, Larry was involved in the IPC National Technology Roadmap and was a co-founder of the Technology Research Institute (ITRI).

As a man dedicated to his profession and giving back, Larry invested in our industry's future workforce by providing students or college-bound individuals with a monetary contribution toward a diploma or degree program at a community college, technical school, college, or university. This resulted in the establishment of the Larry N. Velie California Circuits Association Educational Scholarship program.

A long and storied career is not without its hiccups, and Velie Circuits' entry into Chapter 11 in 1996 only catalyzed the company, bringing it into a strong financial and technical position. Though reticent to talk about certain details, Larry was open and willing to discuss how the company navigated through change management in its way of doing business to create success once again.

Many of us who were highly involved in the Global Electronics Association in its more formative years worked with and became good friends with Larry. He was proud of his company and was always willing to take suppliers, their other customers, students, and just about anyone who was interested, on a tour of his company and an explanation of its manufacturing processes. He was open and willing to offer advice and answer questions, and continued to be interested in new developments and technology in PCB fabrication until the end of his days.