It was sad to hear today of the passing of Andy Grove, Intel co-founder and former president.
Although I did not know him well, Andy was a part of my brief 1½-year stint at Intel in the early 1980s. He played a key role in my “IOPEC” new employee training, and he and I were in cubicles on the same floor of the same Intel office building, so we would run into each other from time to time during the business day.
Plenty has been said about this man’s competence as a manager, and plenty more will be said. He drove the creation of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturer.
I think I was most impressed, though, when he agreed to be interviewed for a PBS television special on the history of the semiconductor industry: “Silicon Valley: American Experience” despite the fact that his battle with Parkinson’s Disease had already rendered it difficult for him to speak.
I always meant to write to him to tell him how impressed I was that he would do that. I guess I won’t have the chance now.
