GRGURINOVICH-GRINICH,
VICTOR Engineer
Victor
Grinich, one of the founders of Fairchild
Semiconductor, the Silicon Valley company that helped start the computer
revolution, died November 12, 2000 in Mountain View, California at age 75. An
electrical engineer by training, Grinich went to work for Shockley
Semiconductor in 1956. A year later, he and seven colleagues founded
Fairchild. Other members of the group
were Jean Hoenri, Eugene Kleiner, Jay Last, Gordon Moore, Sheldon Roberts,
Sherman Fairchild and Robert Noyce. Grinich began at Fairchild as head of
engineering and applications and then was second in command of the research and
development department, which was headed by Moore. Fairchild produced the first
commercially viable integrated circuit, a forerunner of the modern computer
chip. 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.
Born
Victor Grgurinovich in Aberdeen, Washington, to Croatian immigrant parents,
Grinich served in the Navy during World War II. He changed his name after the
war, to avoid the difficult spelling and went off to college, earning
bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Washington and a
doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford. After leaving Fairchild in
the late 1960s, Grinich taught at UC Berkeley and Stanford. He was coauthor of
the textbook, "Introduction to Integrated Circuits." He also headed
some smaller Silicon Valley firms. He is survived by his wife, Helen Hood
Grinich; two sons, a daughter and three grandchildren.