Francisco J. Collazo Bio
Born in 1931, Francisco J. Collazo grew up on his father’s 120 acres of farmland in the mountains of Utuado, Puerto Rico. He idolized his father who he memorialized with a beautiful cliff park on his 1100-acre Gunter (Grant) Mountain Farm near Huntsville, AL. In 1955, he married Carmen Ana Rivera. They have three children, Frank L, Joe, and Rosana Collazo, 7 grandchildren, and 2 great grandchildren.
To contribute to the war effort, Mr. Collazo dropped out of high school at the age of 15 to join the Army during WWII. He also served in the Korean and Vietnam wars. Mr. Collazo retired as a Chief Warrant Officer 4 after 30 years of military service to the Army’s Air Defense programs. In 1969, he received the Meritorious Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters and Commendation Medal with three oak leaf clusters, and in 1970 the Bronze Star Medal with first oak leaf cluster for distinguishing himself in connection with military operations against a hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam. Mr. Collazo is a service-connected disabled veteran.
Before finishing high school, Mr. Collazo enlisted in the Army. Still, he left the Army an educated man knowledgeable enough to become a respected consultant and later start his own company. Mr. Collazo attended many technical schools and earned sufficient credit hours to earn the Department of the Army equivalency of a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. He far exceeded the course requirements in both disciplines, 42 hours in Mathematics and 34 hours in Computer Science. (Frequent deployments precluded the award of a degree due to the individual institution's residency requirements.) Based on this technical coursework and his military and technical experience with missile weapons systems, in 2003, the University of Alabama Huntsville bestowed Mr. Collazo an honorary degree of Doctor of Science.
In 1980, Mr. Collazo and his wife Carmen started COLSA Corporation in the garage of their southeast Huntsville home. The two-employee company offered systems analysis and engineering in support of air defense systems materiel development. There was but one goal: to serve the company’s customers with dedication and excellence.
COLSA grew rapidly moving from the Collazo’s garage to small offices on South Memorial Parkway in Huntsville to Sparkman Drive and to its current facility in Cummings Research Park. In 1983, under the 8(a) Business Development program, the SBA certified COLSA as a socially and economically disadvantaged company. 
In 1988, in recognition of its outstanding growth and excellence in government contracting, the SBA selected COLSA as the Regional Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year. In the subsequent national competition, the SBA named COLSA the National Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year – a prestigious national honor.
In 1991, the Huntsville and Madison County Chapter of the National Management Association named Frank J. Collazo manager of the year in recognition of his outstanding leadership. COLSA Corporation successfully graduated from the 8(a) Program through exceptional growth.
Two of COLSA’s largest awards were the Royal Saudi Arabia Defense Force group of contracts in 1986 valued at approximately $700M over a ten-year period, and the Fiber Optic Guided Missile (FOG-M) System Integration contract in 1987 valued at approximately $50M.
Today, with corporate headquarters in Huntsville’s Cummings Research Park, COLSA Corporation has grown to over 1600 employees. COLSA received the Cogswell Award for Excellence in Security Operations in 1997 and 2008. COLSA is ISO9001:2015 certified.
The State of Alabama selected COLSA Corporation for induction into the State Engineering Hall of Fame for the year 2004 in recognition of COLSA’s engineering excellence. NASA awarded COLSA Corporation the Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year award for 2008. Additionally, COLSA received the 2008 Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics.
Mr. Collazo received the distinguished 2018 Davidson Award for his contribution to the defense community, as well as his contributions to educational advancement. He was nominated by members of the defense community and selected by the Presidents of the ASMDA, NDIA, and ADAA.
COLSA Corporation committed $1M to the University of Alabama in Huntsville to establish the Collazo Endowment for the recruitment and retention of Engineering students at the university. The Francisco J. Collazo endowed scholarship fund at Auburn University awards full annual scholarships in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.
COLSA has business activities in Huntsville, AL; Colorado Springs, CO; Orlando, FL; Shalimar, FL; Tampa, FL; San Diego, CA; Palmdale, CA; Dayton, OH; Charleston, SC; Stennis Space Center, MS.
Mr. Collazo’s motto in life is, “Character is a matter of what you do when no one is watching.” The tremendous personal and corporate contributions he makes to the community and to hundreds of disadvantaged organizations are primarily confidential and low profile.