Harold W. Ulmer was born into a Methodist, German-American family in Los Angeles in 1912. In 1922 the family moved to Alhambra, California. About this time he became interested in radio and in 1926 got his ham radio license - W6EPM. Harold's close friend, Dick Seaman, had a ham radio station using the large and expensive 204A tubes. In 1929, when one of these tubes went bad, they looked into getting it repaired, and ended up going to nearby Caltech in Pasadena. They were referred to the glass-blowing department, where they both informally learned glass-blowing. They started a business making scientific glassware, and after a few years made their first vacuum tube. Harold also worked part-time as a radio assembler at Gilfillan Brothers in Los Angeles.

Harold's parents moved to Oceanside, California in 1932. A year later, Harold followed and set-up tube-making equipment in the garage at 302 North Clementine Street. Harold did odd-jobs and in 1935 was employed at the local post office, where his father worked. However, his interest in radio and tubes was intense, and he continued to make tubes, including experiments with CRTs, in the family garage. In 1936, he called his efforts Vacuum Tube Products (VTP).

After Pearl Harbor, Harold wanted to join the Army's Special Electronics Group, but was rejected due to a heart murmur. A good friend, Johnny Griggs, had gone east to work at Federal Telegraph in New Jersey. Johnny urged Harold to join him, so in early 1942 he moved to New Jersey and was eventually put in charge of Federal's large glass transmitting tubes. At this point (mid-1942), Johnny had moved on to Raytheon, near Boston. Another close-friend, Carl Schwenden, was nearby at MIT, working at the Rad Lab. They both convinced Harold to come to Raytheon, and after supervising the production of some older tubes, was put in charge of virtually all of Raytheon's glass power tubes, rectifiers, and thyratrons.

It should be mentioned that Harold Ulmer had only sporadically attended junior colleges in Pasadena and Oceanside and never got a degree. His successes at Federal and Raytheon, where he was a senior engineer, show his remarkable ability to find the smart people and soak-up their knowledge. He was also very pragmatic, and was promoted because he made his tube production lines have excellent yield. Later, in 1948, he became a licensed Professional Engineer, and in 1955 became a senior member of the IRE (Institute of Radio Engineers).

Harold's fiance from Oceanside, Olga Koehlert, joined him, and in 1943 they were married. In December 1945, he moved back west, but just before the move, his first daughter, Janice, was born. Upon returning to Oceanside, he dug a full basement under his parent's house, and used this space, along with the garage, to re-constitute Vacuum Tube Products. Johnny Griggs had come back west and was working at Consolidated Vultee (Convair) in San Diego, and managed to convince Harold to join him working on missile guidance systems.

Part of Harold's work at Convair involved making special tubes for them at VTP in Oceanside. He also got into making picture tubes, and in 1949, made the first rectangular picture tube west of Chicago. In 1948, his son, Jim, was born. In 1951, Ronalee ("Roni") was born. By this time, more space was needed, so an industrial building, 506 South Cleveland St., was rented. In the early 1950s, Harold left Convair and concentrated on VTP. In 1956 a new building was built at 2020 Short St. (now Oceanside Blvd.).

In addition to tubes, Vacuum Tube Products (VTP) made other things related to tube manufacturing, such as vacuum gauges and spot welders. VTP had a reputation for successfully making exotic tubes and CRTs and got several interesting commissions, including a proof-of-concept prototype of the Lawrence color TV tube. VTP produced the first Memotron (storage) CRTs for Hughes, after RCA and Farnsworth failed to make them. Hughes was so impressed by VTP, that they bought the company in 1959. Harold was offered a one-year contract to manage their tube production.

Harold was not happy with the company politics and intrigues at Hughes and left after six months. He then started H.W. Ulmer Company and made various devices including vacuum gauges and welders. He bought the first building in a new industrial park near the airport - 2941 San Luis Rey Road, leasing it to his next business venture. In 1961, H.W. Ulmer merged with Denver-based Microtron and made mainly welders, including very large ones that would make 14-foot wide mesh, used in freeway construction. A second building, 3018 San Luis Rey Road, was also leased for offices and cleanroom manufacturing.

Harold was unhappy with how Microtron stock was being used by its investors to make money (pump-and-dump). He needed back surgery, and used this as an opportunity to exit the company in 1963. He was smart, since in 1964, Microtron went bankrupt. He was able to buy back most of the equipment in the bankruptcy auction for pennies on the dollar. Harold started making tubes again, and hired a former VTP worker, Lillian McEwen to join him. This formed the basis of McEwen-Ulmer Incorporated, later shorted to M U Inc. Harold bought out Lillian's share about 1967 and at this time his daughter, Roni, started working at M U part-time. Harold's wife, Olga, had done all the accounting and bookkeeping for all of Harold's operations and continued in this capacity.

In 1967, a three-acre parcel on a hill overlooking the industrial park was purchased by Harold and some spec houses were built. In 1970, Harold moved into one of these houses, 2550 Pahvant Street. Later, Janice and Roni would build houses on this sub-divided parcel. Harold hoped that his son might be his successor, but sadly in 1968, Jim fell on hard times at UC Berkeley, was classified 1A by the local draft board, and then committed suicide a few weeks later.

With the overall tube business beginning to decline in the late 1960s and 1970s, M U concentrated on making tubes that other companies had dropped, especially for the military. In 1974, M U applied for and received a CAGE code, making it easier to bid on military contracts. They also made tubes for commercial customers, including high-resolution X-Ray tubes. By this time, Roni was working full-time at M U. Many tube types were made, the highest volume ones being the 2C53 and 3D21WB.

As Harold got older and slowed down, Roni took over as president of M U. By this time, Harold got tired of explaining the M U name situation, and just started telling people that it stood for "Mr. Ulmer". In the mid 1990s, he began to have mini-strokes, and in September 1997, died, just one month short of 85 years old.

Roni continued to work on tube contracts, although only left were one or two tube types. When her uncle Osborne Koehlert, the last of the M U employees died, Roni turned to Charles Alexanian of Alextronics in Fresno to be on call and mentor her in electrical repair and calibration of her equipment. By the late 2000's, orders were getting slower and materials harder to get. Roni's main goal was to keep M U going to reach it's 50th anniversary and closing after that. Roni finally closed the company in 2018, reaching almost 54 years in business. The last two tube types produced were the 2C53 and 6303.

[Extracted from a longer biography being written for the Tube Collector magazine, published by the Tube Collectors Association.]

- John Atwood