Points to Ponder: Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time. -- From A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Story Line: It was on this date (June 18) 31 years ago. I had just left my company campus in Fremont to go to Center of Performing Arts in San Jose to attend the memorial service for the man who had left this world after making major impact on mankind through his invention, entrepreneurship and statesmanship. My reason for going there was to pay my respect to the man who had left a lifelong memory and lesson in one short encounter I had with him in 1984. And I was not the only one. One Local Newspaper had seven full pages of tributes for this man by many people whose life he had touched. On the way, these stories started rolling through my mind. Here are a few told by some of these people.
There was a young man who had gotten a job at Fairchild Semiconductor to help pay for his schooling at San Jose State. During company sponsored ski trip to Tahoe, he and the fellow sitting next to him started chatting. This fellow showed a lot of interest in what this young man was doing as a technician and asked questions about his other interests. They chatted entire trip, had great time together and according to young man “He seemed interested in making me feel good about life in general and having a swell of a trip.” Only upon return he found out that this “nice guy” next to him was Bob Noyce, the inventor of integrated circuit and the founder of Fairchild Semiconductor.
During one industry event, a company CEO and his team ran into Bob. After CEO introduced his staff to Bob, he turned to one of his younger engineer who had just come to town to assist with equipment installation in Fab. “This is Dr. Noyce of Intel” The engineer shook Bob’s hand and asked “Which fab do you work at?” After the laughter subsided, Noyce humbly said, “All of them.” Little did the engineer know at that time that Bob Noyce was the founder of Intel and also cofounder of Sematech.
Then there was a story of Fairchild employees who were in LA for a conference. After a long day they were relaxing by the hotel pool and Bob Noyce came by. One of the salesman who was in jovial mood made a pretty good jackknife dive off the 3 meter board. As he emerged from the water he challenged Bob to top that. Bob climbed 3 meter board and made a perfect 2 ½ flip drive. Everyone was stunned. Several weeks later they found out that Bob was a college diving champion. Despite his many talents Bob never boasted about his accomplishments.
Bob used to sponsor little league baseball. Once while he was visiting his team, some kids offered him to bat. It was meant to be for fun. Once Bob got to the plate, his competitive spirit kicked in and when one kid pitched the ball, Bob hit it out of the ballpark. Then he ran through the bases and jumped with joy while landing on the home plate. Realizing there were no cheers going on, he looked at the kids and spectaors. Noticing their stunned faces, he realized what he had done and apologized.
There were many such stories filling the seven full pages of newspaper; people recounting how Bob loved to fly planes, how he motivated people to hang glide, scuba dive, and ski in scary places. He almost never missed company softball games. Then there were many memories of Wednesday meetings of the madrigal singing group he conducted, his encouragement to people to start new ventures, and his refusal to stop pursuing integrated circuits design venture when sales department strongly advised against it. I have treasured all seven pages and any story I have come across about Bob. But for now only one more….
Reflection: I had good fortune to meet Bob in March 1984, few weeks after I had joined Intel. I didn’t know much about Robert Noyce then that I know now. But just like the young man in the first story, he showed great interest in me by asking questions and made me feel good. His gentle smile, calm voice and humility are forever fresh in my mind. When I asked if he had any advice for a new person like me, he said “Young man (that was long time ago), if you want to be successful in this industry, be ready to change document before ink is dry.”
Studying the lives of people who have made an incredible impact on world, one thing stands out; there was no easy path. They encountered many hurdles and at each inflection point they had to reinvent themselves; learn new skills, try new approaches and continue their work with passion for excellence.
The life of Robert Noyce, the man who left the major mark on this world with the invention of commercially viable integrated circuits was no exception in this regard. Born in a poor family he worked in cornfields of Iowa after school, delivered newspapers and lived off hand-me-downs and produce from church members*. But his passion, perseverance and willingness to try new approaches resulted in the impact that continues to grow through the years.
In her tribute, his wife Ann Bowers summed it up beautifully “His ability to live fully was infectious and marvelous to live with. His most important legacy is the positive effect one can have by “going for it” in every way.
*the information contained in this sentence is from a wonderful tribute that was written by Michael Malone.
The various people’s memories are from newspaper tributes published in June 1990.