80 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2025
F E AT U R E C O LU M N I ST Q & A
Happy Holden: A Relentless
Pursuit of Knowledge
C o l u m n i st : Happy Holden
C o l u m n : Happy 's Tech Talk
Ti m e w i t h I - C o n n e ct 0 07: 24 years
Columnist Bio: H a p py H o l d e n h a s
wo r ke d i n p r i n te d c i rc u i t te c h n o l o g y
s i n c e 1 970 w i t h H ew l et t- Pa c ka rd , N a nYa
West wo o d , M e r i x , M e nto r G ra p h i c s , Foxc o n n , a n d G e n -
tex . H e i s c u r re nt l y a c o nt r i b u t i n g te c h n i c a l e d i to r w i t h
I - C o n n e ct 0 07, a n d t h e a u t h o r of Au to m a t i o n a n d
Ad va n c e d P ro c e d u re s i n P C B F a b r i c a t i o n , a n d 24
Es s e n t i a l S k i l l s fo r E n g i n e e rs .
S e l e ct c o l u m n s f ro m H a p py 's Te c h Ta l k :
• Engineering Statistics Training With Free
Software
• Applying Density Equations to UHDI Design
• Sustainability and Circularity for Electronics
Manufacturing
• PCBs Replace Motor Windings
• Novel Metallization for UHDI
• New Ultra HDI Materials
by M a rcy La Ro nt , I - C o n n e ct 0 07
H
appy has contributed to the industry's knowl-
edge base for nearly his entire career. Young
engineers seek him out for his columns and books.
We ask him a few questions to learn more about
his life.
Happy, tell us about yourself. Where were you born
and raised? What is a favorite childhood memory?
I was born in 1947 in Whitewater, Wisconsin. My
father was in college on the GI Bill at the time. Just
seven days earlier, my cousin had been born in the
same bed in the Birthing Center. I grew up on a farm
in Wisconsin, then in Columbia City, Indiana, Toulon,
Illinois, and several places in southern California,
before my family settled in Alsea, Oregon.
In 1956, my family went by train to visit my grand-
mother in San Diego, California, taking the southern
route on the El Capi-
tan to see her and
the northern route
home on the Califor-
nia Zephyr. We went
to the new Disney-
land and Hollywood.
That train trip is one
of my favorite child-
hood memories—so
much so that when
my young family was living in Taiwan in 1985, we
took the boys on a true transcontinental train trip
from Perth to Sydney, Australia, getting off the train
at Kalgoorlie and Adelaide.
Where did you attend college, and what did you
study?
I attended Oregon State University in Corvallis
and studied dual degrees in chemical and electri-
cal engineering. I was attending a small mountain
high school in Oregon with only 92 students across
all four grades, and had taken all the science and
math courses it had to offer, so the high school let
me attend OSU half-time while I was a senior. From
1962 to 1965, I worked summers for the botany and
▼
Happy's sons, Ben and Dan Holden
in 1982.
▼
Ben and Dan visiting Happy at his desk on a Saturday
in April 1986 at the HPT office in Taipei.
