The Church of the Protection of the Holy Virgin Mary in Palo Alto, California, was built in part thanks to donations from employees of AMPEX. The founder of this company was Russian émigré Alexander Matveyevich Poniatov, a renowned engineer and innovator. Among AMPEX's achievements are the invention of the slant-track magnetic recording principle and the creation of the world's first video tape recorder. Poniatov passed away thirty years ago, in 1980, from a stroke, and his funeral was conducted by Father Vladimir Deryugin in this church. Among the parishioners was also the well-known General Vladimir Vitkovsky.