THE HISTORY OF COLSA CORPORATION AND THE STORY OF MY UNCLE
Coamo, octuber 6 , 2013. After serving more than 30
years in the U.S. Army, my uncle Francisco J. Collazo Beauchamp, a native of
Puerto Rico, founded COLSA Corporation in 1980 – beginning literally in his
garage in Huntsville, Alabama. Mr. Collazo envisioned a distinctive kind of
engineering and support services company. His vision was to build COLSA with a
reputation of excellence and quality work, to deliver unsurpassed customer
support, and to create a work environment that would attract and retain the
best talent. Mr. Collazo’s vision was soon realized with COLSA establishing a
reputation as a first-rate provider of engineering and support services while
employing a staff of respected experts. Because we have remained steadfast in
our commitment to Mr. Collazo’s vision – to serve our customers with dedication
and excellence – COLSA has grown from a 20-person operation in 1983, when the
Government awarded COLSA its first prime contract, to more than 850 employees
in 2012.
In 2003, COLSA acquired Huntsville-based Pace and
Waite, Inc., a small NASA contractor providing engineering and management
support and Digital Wizards, Inc., a San Diego-based small business supporting
the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center. COLSA’s primary customers include
NASA, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, Defense Intelligence Agency, and
the Missile Defense Agency. Headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, COLSA also
has regional offices in Washington, DC, Orlando, Florida, Shalimar, Florida,
San Diego, California, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Sierra Vista, Arizona and Palmdale
California.
Throughout the years, COLSA has been recognized with
many awards, including: the top minority-owned high technology firm in the
nation; the National Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year; one of the
first small firms to be listed in the top 100 research, development, test, and
evaluation firms in the nation; the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame; the James
S. Cogswell Outstanding Industrial Security Achievement Award (twice); NASA’s
Marshall Space Flight Center Small Prime Contractor of the Year; the 2008 Torch
Award for Business Ethics; and countless accolades from customers and partner
contractors.
COLSA has a long history of
supporting charitable causes and community outreach programs. Over the years,
by supporting educational, health and welfare, civic and cultural causes, COLSA
has made a positive impact on individual lives and our communities as a whole. This information is from the webpage WWW.COLSA.COM.
Fotos
by Ramón Luis Vázquez Collazo Copyright 2013 © Ramón Luis Vázquez
Collazo – All Rights Reserved. In a real democracy everything is possible. This
is one of the many stories of the Latin-American people and the American people working together.
By Ramón Luis Vázquez Collazo of the
Independent Press y Other Services.
