Ron Yanke, Philanthropist, 68

[DGH]

.

It was reported from Boise, Idaho, that Ron Yanke, a machine shop
operator and philanthropist who was instrumental in getting Micron
Technology Inc. off the ground, died Tuesday, February 3, 2004, of
leukemia, his son-in-law said, at the age of 68.

Yanke owned a string of businesses and real estate throughout the
region. His primary business was Yanke Machine Shop, a custom
fabrication and large machine shop he took over at a young age when
his father became ill.

Perhaps the biggest deal Yanke pulled together was the initial
investment in Micron Technology, now the state's largest
private-industry employer and the world's second-largest memory chip
manufacturer.

Yanke gathered friends Thomas Nicholson and Allen Noble to fund
brothers Ward and Joe Parkinson in the startup venture when Micron was
housed in the basement of a dentist's office.

Yanke had a long list of philanthropic interests. He donated for the
initial construction of the observatory at the Bruneau Sand Dunes
State Park. He contributed a manufactured home to the Boise-based The
Peregrine Fund as a field station for a crew in Arizona releasing
California condors.