Based only on the photos, this looks like one of the finest American made frames. The lugs are thinned, a heart is carved into the lugs and it has a blind seat stay bolt. In fact it looks like it was more finely made than more famous frames. This kind of work takes a lot longer to do and so paradoxically because fewer numbers were made they are less well known. And then the builder finds more profitable work so he didn’t build for a long time. It could be used as an example in my framebuilding classes of what my students should aspire to accomplish. Some thoughts:
Down tube lever bosses and one set of water bottle bosses and no top tube braze on cable guides would place it somewhere in the neighborhood of being made around 1972 or a bit later.
The blind seat bolt fastback style was a characteristic of builders between Oakland and Eugene. That method requires the use of a vertical mill so that rules out almost all amateurs with limited equipment.
Thinned lugs became popular because of the work of the father of modern American framebuilding Albert Eisentraut. Pictures of his details in Bicycling magazine encouraged others to copy. It was one way to show that young Americans put more effort into building frames than the popular but much more swiftly made frames from England or Italy.
The decal while not up to modern standards produced by Gary Prange was nicely done for that era. The graphics are good and it was common to print something on Mylar.
I thought I knew most of my colleagues who built in the 70’s but it is not a name I recognize. Unless a builder from another part of the country somehow got his name into one of the cycling magazines there wasn’t many other ways to broadly promote oneself. If Michael Johnson did have some connection to Jim Recay than it is likely Jeff Kellogg might know who he is. Jeff used to work with Jim and, if I remember right, Jim learned from Bill Boston (they both lived in New Jersey).