Harold K. Forsen (born September 19, 1932 in St. Joseph, Missouri) in 1952, he married his high-school sweetheart Betty A. Webb while he served in the Air Force (1951–55).
He decided that a PhD was required to make significant contributions in the plasma physics field and enrolled in the Electrical Engineering Department at the Berkeley campus of the University of California.
His career then turned toward the academic side and in 1965 he was hired into the Nuclear Engineering Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
While at Exxon, Harold continued his “academic” role and served as the President and finally Chairman of the Board of the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington for 6 years.
He was then lured (in 1981) to the Bechtel Company in San Francisco to be the Vice President and Manager of the Technology Group.