In Memoriam: Victor Grinich
Barry Marjanovich
Thursday, November 9, 2000
Victor Grinich, semiconductor pioneer, dead at 75
BY ELISE BANDUCCI
Mercury News
Victor Grinich, one of the legendary ``traitorous eight'' who
in 1957 formed Fairchild Semiconductor, the Silicon Valley
company that helped spawn the computer revolution, died
Nov. 4 of prostate cancer. He was 75.
Fairchild produced the first commercially viable integrated
circuit, which was the precursor to the microprocessor,
the brain of the modern computer.
The company also gave rise to the phenomenon of entrepreneurs
breaking away from firms to form their own ventures that
themselves begot spinoffs.
The men were dubbed the ``traitorous eight'' by William Shockley,
the brilliant but difficult co-inventor of the transistor from whose
company -- Shockley Semiconductor -- the men fled to form
Fairchild.
Mr. Grinich, the only electrical engineer of the original eight,
started out at Fairchild as head of engineering and applications.
He then became second in command of its research and
development lab, headed by another founder, Gordon Moore.
Mr. Grinich later became general manager of the instrumentation
division, said Julius Blank, also one of the original eight.
``I remember him as someone I could talk to who would have
a sympathetic ear as well as someone who would give me excellent
advice about what was going on in the laboratory,'' said Moore,
who later formed Intel Corp. with fellow Shockley ``traitor''
Robert Noyce.
Victor Grinich was born Victor Grgurinovich to Croatian immigrants
and grew up bilingual. His mother died when he was a child, said
Helen Nelson Grinich, his second wife.
It was after serving in the Navy during World War II that he
officially changed his name to Victor Grinich.
``He endured roll call in the Navy,'' his wife said. ``Waiting for
the caller of the roll to stop dead in his tracks because he couldn't
pronounce a last name that started with three consonants.''
A native of Aberdeen, Wash., Mr. Grinich earned bachelor's and
master's degrees in electrical engineering from the University of
Washington. He moved to the Bay Area to attend Stanford University,
where he received a doctorate in electrical engineering.
In the early 1950s, he started working at Stanford Research Institute,
now SRI International, as a research engineer. He went to work
for Shockley Semiconductor in 1956.
In 1957, he, along with seven other top company researchers,
decided they had had it with Shockley and left to form Fairchild.
In addition to Mr. Grinich, Moore, Noyce and Blank, the eight
consisted of Eugene Kleiner, Jean Hoerni, Jay Last and Sheldon
Roberts. Noyce, who is credited with co-inventing the integrated
circuit, died in 1990. Hoerni died in 1997.
After leaving Fairchild in the late 1960s, Mr. Grinich taught at
the University of California-Berkeley and Stanford and co-authored
the textbook ``Introduction to Integrated Circuits.'' He also
headed several small companies, said Christophe Lecuyer,
who is working on a book about Silicon Valley and interviewed
Mr. Grinich shortly before his death.
In the mid 1980s, Mr. Grinich and his first wife, Nina Meinhard,
divorced. The couple had three children. Mr. Grinich married
Helen Nelson in 1987.
Anita Grinich, Mr. Grinich's only daughter, said her father
enjoyed skiing, reading, walking, folk dancing and keeping up
with world events. A sailor for many years, he also raced
his 28-foot sailboat, Alethea, on San Francisco Bay.
Contact Elise Banducci at eban...@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5673.
Victor H. Grinich
Born:Nov. 26, 1924, in Aberdeen, Wash.
Died: Nov. 4, 2000, in a Mountain View convalescent hospital.
Survived by: Wife, Helen Nelson Grinich of Mountain View;
daughter, Anita Grinich of Hood River, Ore.; sons, Nick Grinich
of McMinnville, Ore., and Philip Grinich of Santa Cruz; and
three grandchildren.
Services: Memorial 1 p.m. Nov. 18 in Aberdeen, Wash.
Memorial: Donations may be made to Grays Harbor College
Scholarship, 1620 Smith Drive, Aberdeen, Wash. 98520.
Sinisa Kolaric
Bravo Barry!!!!!!!!!!
An interesting story for a change.
Barry Marjanovich
The Associated Press, Fri 10 Nov 2000
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Victor Grinich, who formed
Fairchild Semiconductor and helped start the computer revolution,
died Sunday of prostate cancer. He was 75.
Grinich and his colleagues were dubbed the ``traitorous eight''
by William Shockley, co-inventor of the transistor, after
they left Shockley Semiconductor in 1957 to form Fairchild.
Fairchild produced the first commercially viable integrated circuit,
the grandparent of today's modern computer chip.
Grinich was born Victor Grgurinovich in Aberdeen, Wash.,
to Croatian immigrant parents. He served in the Navy
during World War II.
It was after that Navy service that he changed the spelling
of his last name.
``He endured roll call in the Navy, waiting for the caller of
the roll to stop dead in his tracks because he couldn't
pronounce a last name that started with three consonants,''
said his wife, Helen.
He earned undergraduate degrees from the University of
Washington and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at
Stanford University.
Grinich began working for Stanford Research Institute,
now SRI International, in the early 1950s.
He went to work for Shockley in 1956, but left the following
year after he and the seven other scientists decided they
had had enough of their brilliant but temperamental boss.
Fairchild has grown into a $786 billion company with more
than 8,000 employees. The company's chips power electronic
devices used in cars, computers and telecommunications equipment.
After leaving Fairchild in the late 1960s, Grinich taught at
the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford.
Besides his wife, Grinich is survived by a daughter,
and two sons from a previous marriage.
Barry Marjanovich
served:
> BWAHAHAHA. Good Lord, Barry, slow down!
Posting under the name Barry Moronovich is a certain
Mirko M. Djuric of Chicago (Serb Chetnik from Lika).
He used to be quite active here several months ago under
his real name and three Jewish pseudonyms (Ephraim
Levi, Jakov Nissi(m) and Reuben Boaz). After I exposed
him, he took some time out and now he's back with
a slightly different approach.
http://www.ljubija.hr/ratni-zlocini/hrvatska/dalmacija/index.htm
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
BBC
Friday, 6 October, 2000
Kostunica: 'I won't hand over Milosevic'
'I am the president'
http://www.heroes.net/warcrimes/warcriminals.html
sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
ORDINARY SERVS KILLED 250,000 PEOPLE!
sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
http://www.hrvatska.org/vukovar/
http://www.dalmatia.net/croatia/war/index.htm
http://www.hic.hr/books/greatserbia/index.htm
http://www.hic.hr/books/creation/index.htm
http://www.heroes.net/warcrimes/warcriminals.html
http://abcnews.go.com/reference/bios/milosevic.html
http://www.sps.org.yu/ljudi/smilosevic.html
sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
http://www.ljubija.hr/ratni-zlocini/hrvatska/dalmacija/index.htm
Barry Moronovich
> Fairchild has grown into a $786 billion company with more
~~~~~~~~~~~~
> than 8,000 employees.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BWAHAHAHA. Good Lord, Barry, slow down! Again something like " A Croat
invented perpetual motion machine ... Iranian origins ..."
Anyway, Barry, I'm proud of you. You are our court jester, butt of the
town ...
--
All Moronovichs are genuine Croats;
Every genuine Croat is, to the some
point, a Moronovich
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.