Biography of Mr. Frank

Mr. Christopher L. Frank


Chris Frank was born in Chesterton Indiana. Upon graduation from Chesterton High School he worked briefly for NIPSCO at their Bailey Generating Station he then entered the Air Force as an electronics technician in the elite SR-71, Blackbird program at Beale AFB, California. After completing his military obligation Chris entered the School of Engineering at Fresno State University. While attending Fresno State, Mr. Frank began a part-time job with the plastics molding industry. As his involvement with the industry progressed, the responsibilities of his position evolved to include the management of a small custom injection-molding shop. During the same time he started the Energy Factory, a passive solar consulting firm.

He moved to Yuba City, California where, he started another solar company the Solar Utility Network and resumed his Engineering Degree studies at Sacramento State University. Chris received his Mechanical Engineering Degree and accepted a position as a designer for Houston Fearless-76, a Department of Defense (DOD) contractor supporting the SR-71 program.
At HF76 he provided mechanical design support and development for fully deployable complex of sophisticated electronic and Photo interpretive equipment. This included power generation, switchgear, and environment conditioning, structural and dynamic design.
After joining the US AIR FORCE ADVANCED COMPOSITES PROGRAM OFFICE (ACPO) in 1985, Mr. Frank supervised the installation and operation of a developmental injection molding facility for large-scale injection-molded parts.



He has also developed and taught a number of courses on injection molding and tool design for industry and the DOD. As a member of the ACPO, located at McClellan AFB, Sacramento California, Chris leads the office's thermoplastic activities.



Mr. Frank has contributed design, materials and processing expertise to the Phillips Laboratory at Edwards AFB, California, collaborating on the application of Liquid Crystal Polymers (LCP) technology to rocket motor and engine components.

He has consulted with engineers at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division at China Lake, California, to develop a plastic Short Range Anti-armor Weapon.



Chris has also worked with engineers from Eglin AFB, Florida, Armament Laboratory to design and develop molding materials and processes to reduce the mass, lower the cost, and increase the producibility of hypervelocity projectiles.

Additionally, Mr. Frank has provided consultation and training to DOD organizations during their acquisition and installation of molding equipment. He also has consulted widely throughout DOD, including, laboratories, and design groups, on engineering and technical questions relating to molding and plastics.


In 1998 Chris left public service to join VeriFone a wholly owned subsidiary of Hewlett Packard. While at VeriFone he contributed to the development of a number of products including 2 handheld wireless offerings. As a result he currently holds US Patent 6,494,366-B2



In 2006 Chris brought that spirit and insight to Golden Bear to launch this new process and company by slashing time to market and life cycle energy needs. Created a reliable, low cost manufacturing platform using off-the–shelf machinery and innovative processes.


Expanded the product line from Floor and wall tile to roof tile and countertops.

Recruited by OPEN ENERGY Corp. in 2008 to solve materials and process issues, he later created an incubator for solar product development and manufacturing processes.



Managed daily operations and staff of 14 The company was reorganized in 2009 and changed its name to APPLIED SOLAR LLC.



Chris teamed R&D with, manufacturing, and field trainers on translating unproven technologies into marketable, high margin products.

Revamped both manufacturing and product designs for efficient production volume and ultimately off-shore manufacture.
Steered products through UL, CSA, and INTERTECK testing and certification processes.
Freed capital for investment in R&D by negotiating licensing/ manufacturing agreement for Solarsave’s BIPV and Commercial Membrane products with North American distribution partner.
Captured patentable Intellectual Properties for submission. Currently holds 3 patent submissions.

Mr. Frank has authored a number of papers for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and an article for AEROSPACE COMPOSITES AND MATERIALS MAGAZINE on Air Force injection-molding efforts. In 1991, he received the Outstanding Productivity Civilian of the Year Award from General McDonald, then Commander, of the Air Force Logistics Command. He has been named in WHO'S WHO IN THE WEST AND WHO'S WHO IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, Chris is active in various advisory capacities within SME and as a consulting member of COMMITTEE H, ELECTRONIC MATERIALS AND APPLICATIONS Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Mr. Frank is also a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Chris lives in Rough and Ready, California with his wife Deborah He spends most of his free time sailing with his family.

Testimony August 22, 2010

Give thanks to him who alone does mighty miracles.
His faithful love endures forever. (Psalm 136: 4 New Living Translation)

Does God still do miracles? Not just Miracles but mighty miracles?
Noah and the ark, Moses and the Red sea David and Goliath,

Mighty miracles! I say yes…

Last September I was having trouble sleeping and went to the Doctor to figure out why. He asked me a few innocuous questions and then said you need to get a CT scan today. Next day I go to see him at his request and he says you have a growth in your chest that we need to check out, I’d like you to get it biopsied today. After what the pre briefing nurse called an uncomfortable procedure (I’d call a painful and disconcerting experience) they had their sample of the growth to test and sent me home. Later that same day he calls me and asks me to come in to see him right away. I was calm, reading a magazine when the doctor walked in sat down very near me and said I’m sorry but the growth is cancer, and with a welling tear in his eye he named it…. Inoperable Stage 3 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
At this point I was given a calm, that’s right I WAS GIVEN A CALM… that was so complete I was able to be a comfort to the doctor that had just delivered the news that he thought should devastate me.

14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
(Psalm 139:14 New Living Translation)

Now I need to tell you something else before I can go on with this I was not this calm person.
As some of you know my father passed away when I was 7 years old. He had been sick for some time (a year or so) and my mother had tried to care for him at home but it became too much and she had to send him to a nursing home. I never really understood as a 6 year old what was wrong, as it turns out it was most likely cancer. At that age though I just knew he was in bed a lot then gone somewhere that we visited and it was a nice place, sort of in the country and they had a pond with a duck and on the second floor where dad was at, in a shaded room, they had an emergency slide. A wonderfully exciting slide for a six year old that the nurse let me slide down only once.

Then one morning I woke up in our sunny house to my mom crying and both my brothers where there and one of them sat on the edge of where I had been sleeping and told me our father was dead. I honestly don’t know what happened after that…. The next clear memory I have is of sitting in the funeral home looking at this gray pewter colored casket and people getting up to talk. I had some vague sense that that box was dad but honestly I couldn’t get my mind around that idea. I remember the ride in the big black Cadillac and a whole line of cars
Well out of this grew a fear of death that was over whelming and that fear haunted my life for years. It was like some sort of a lurking monster that would jump out at me unexpectedly. At night was the worst causing me to spend many dreadful nights waiting for a light.
A few years later when I was in about the 6th grade I began having sever allergies and asthma. Many a hot humid Midwestern night my mom would sit up with me for hours while I gasped for each breath, hours on end, night after night, and all the while this terrible monster death, lurked in the shadows.

So here we have a person who spent a good part of his life terrified by the mere concept of death let alone a diagnosis of that leads to death, receiving this news in a calm, peaceful manor.

Now, how in the world can both of these situations be resolved in the same person in the same lifetime? They can’t be resolved in this world they can only be resolved through God.

24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 28 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' (Acts 17:24,25 & 28 New International Version)

‘We live and move and have our being’, what a wonderful image of the encompassing meaning of being His children living in His creation as His creation and the Grace we can experience when we open our eyes to look at it around us. (The God who made the world and everything in it) What can we give HIM? Our hearts our Love of our own free will, That’s the only thing we have to give the creator of it all.
That’s what happened to me, God had transformed this scared little boy in a mans body to a boy like David calmly standing before Goliath deflecting his taunts or in my case cancer.

It’s interesting to me how we can easily look back on the miracles God has done and how wonderfully they fit into his plan, but we have so much trouble looking forward to the miracles he will do to fulfill his plan. What plan is that you might ask…

11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11 New International Version)

It’s also about perspective, our point of view.
While on vacation I was repeatedly reminded of my motto from the last EE trip we went on ‘Don’t miss the Miracle’ it seemed that everyplace we found ourselves God’s incredible creations overwhelmed us on all sides in so many ways. One particular incident jumps out, we were docked one evening and enjoying the twilight when I said good evening to someone passing by and commented what a wonderful evening it was and what a beautiful the place we were at. The response I got was ‘yes it’s nice but the sunset would have been much better if that ferry hadn’t been parked right in the way.’ This person was so focused on the man made they missed the God made. A ferry being parked between the sunset and us didn’t change the sunset it only change our view of it. It’s about our view of the obstacle or our perspective.

"Take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:18–19 MSG).

There in that doctor’s office I could have easily slipped into despair and depression, anger and discontent, but God had prepared me. God had allowed me a different perspective He reminded me ‘Live full lives, full in the fullness of God’

We are here today to share our testimony of what has happened in our lives and remind you that the Lord is in the miracle business he has not stopped doing business and he is waiting for you to decide to call on him and praise him for what he has done.

10 All of your works will thank you, Lord,
and your faithful followers will praise you.
11 They will speak of the glory of your kingdom;
they will give examples of your power.
12 They will tell about your mighty deeds
and about the majesty and glory of your reign.
13 For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
You rule throughout all generations.

The Lord always keeps his promises;
he is gracious in all he does.[a]
14 The Lord helps the fallen
and lifts those bent beneath their loads.
17 The Lord is righteous in everything he does;
he is filled with kindness.
18 The Lord is close to all who call on him,
yes, to all who call on him in truth.
19 He grants the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cries for help and rescues them.
Psalm 145:10-19 (New Living Translation)

A little over a year before my diagnosis my brother was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and given 3 to 6 months to live. I spoke with him, I went to visit him and tried to minister to him about how God really does have a plan. So I was forced to study scripture about this and try to answer his tough questions of faith. The questions like; why me?, the why this?, the why now? and the big question of ‘how could a loving God allow so much physical and emotional pain into his life’.
Also I was forced to study the world of cancer and cancer treatments to keep up with our discussions about what was happening to him and his scientific interest. (He considered doctors as auto mechanics without the ability to swap out part to diagnose the problem)
I had seen my brother’s life and health improve and was able to share the gospel with him. I had seen Will Snapp and Anglia Murphy be healed of their cancer, and how prayer supportive our church was for them and their families.

Ephesians 3:20 (Messg)
20–21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Did God want to bargain with me, (Heal me and I’ll change) hardly?

Did God need a time line, (Heal me before my EE trip) unlikely?

During this entire time God had prepared me, but here’s the punch line, the kicker, the point….
I could still decide, He prepared me for this event but God also built us with free will. I could still decide how Chris Frank would react, where I would turn….

Just like that first decision to give our hearts to God. He wants to be Lord of our lives, we can still decide whether we trust him with what’s going on in our lives right now.

The only thing he won’t do is…. make you love him.

God loves us; and he made us able to love and trust him, He is waiting with open arms. Waiting to strengthen you, waiting to comfort you.
Waiting for us to decide…. he is the answer.

Chris and I decided to follow Gods lead, to do what he asked and to ask for the strength to proceed. In other words we asked that this cup be taken from us but if this was his will, then give us the strength whatever the outcome. We trusted in his plan.
Was there discomfort; YES
Was there fear; YES
Was there peace; YES.

So back to miracles,

Was David so practiced and skilled with a sling, or Goliath so overconfident? Was it David or God that beat Goliath?

Was it the medicines, treatments, nurses, technicians and doctors? Was it Science or God that beat our cancers?

Was it a miracle?

I am here to tell you that in both cases there is no question,
These were and are mighty miracles…. God miracles

What are you struggling with today?
What burden is overwhelming?
What do you need help with?
What has God prepared you for?
The author of all we know and all that will ever be is not waiting for your solution.
God is listening for your decision to trust in his plans.

Remember;
11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11 New International Version)