Harold I. Siegel (May 21, 1922-February 9, 2014) was born in Buffalo and grew up on the East Side at 327 Hickory Street in the heart of the old Jewish community around the William Street and Jefferson thoroughfares. Herman Siegel was in the scrap business (Siegel and Son) where Harold's brother was also active in his father's business. Like many Jewish families, his family eventually moved out to North Buffalo to 157 Saranac where they were part of a community around the Saranac Shul and his father, Herman (Hebrew name: Hyman) Siegel, was involved in the lay leadership. Herman Siegel subsequently became involved in the founding of Ahavas Achim Lubavitz on Tacoma, also in North Buffalo. Harold Siegel attended Hutch-Tech School graduating with drafting skills. He was active in an array of sports at school including football and baseball teams and the Niagara Association for Amateur Athletics Union, as well as the Jewish Community Building Wrestling Club. In a 1940 wrestling match held at the YMCA, he placed third in the city. He graduated high school in 1940 at the age of 17 and worked in various drafting jobs. Drafted into the US Army Air Force in 1943 at the age of 21, he eventually became a corporal and was stationed at Watton, Norfolk in England from April 8, 1944 as part of the 654th Bombers Squadron of the 25th Bombardment (Reconnaissance). There he worked in an intelligence squad drafting flight patterns that supplied target location strikes for American soldiers flying from the base in British planes. He returned to America on July 28, 1945 on the Queen Mary and was honorably discharged on August 6, 1945 with a knee injury.

He started working at Bethlehem Steel at the Woodlawn, New York building, on November 2, 1945 as a mechanical engineer using his drafting skills. After studying at Erie County Community College at night while working at Bethlehem Steel, he qualified as an electrical engineer. Living in Kenmore from 1954, he had a thirty-year career at the company, only retiring in 1982, when Bethlehem Steel was in decline. While a respected electrical engineer, Harold Siegel was also heavily involved in gardening and the musical arts. Through the Kenmore Homeowners Association he was recognized as an award winning gardener. As an offshoot of his daughter's interest in dance, he was also president of the Ballet Guild of Buffalo during the 1960s. Part of a community of those interested in ballet, the Siegels came to meet and provide hospitality for many rising ballerinas and ballet stars visiting Buffalo to perform or work at Kleinhans, including Arthur Mitchell, the first African American ballet star in America, and founder of Dance Theatre of Harlem.

After his career at Bethlehem Steel, he became a substitute vocational teacher in several public high schools in Buffalo, including Seneca and Burgard, teaching the Industrial Arts. In the late 1980s and onwards, in his full retirement, he started researching and recording local history particularly the East Side and the North Side making maps, and became a popular presenter to the High School of Jewish Studies, and local temple sisterhoods. In 1999, he moved from Kenmore to Amherst, and from 2001, he and his wife were residents at the Weinberg Campus.

Harold Siegel died in 2014 at the age of 92.