Mar

22

There are many whom one might point to and declare that they are an architect of our society, or that the world would likely be dramatically different had they not strode upon the face of the Earth. Some might go so far as to suggest that the impact of someone is so great that the current world is practically impossible to conjure in the absence of that individual. Andrew Carnegie, Alfred P Sloan, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates are all in that category.

So is Andrew Grove. Or I should say, was Andrew Grove, who passed early in the day:

I wrote recently about Grove’s place among the Intel Trinity. Unlike his peers at Intel (Moore and Noyce), Grove was directly involved in the creation of Wintel and all that it encompassed. Whether one thinks in terms of PCs, the internet, or the electronic controllers in automobiles (among other places), one sees Grove’s handiwork. It would be easy to wax poetically about the man and his accomplishments. He was not only a phenomenal CEO who shone in an age of phenomenal CEOs, he was a phenomenal teacher, both at Intel and at Stanford University. His course in the Graduate School of Business was easily the course most in-demand on the entire campus. At one point, there was a waiting list of GBS students hoping to take the course, never mind from disparate parts of the university.

A refugee (escapee might be a better description) from communist Hungary, Grove might have taken a stance on the political right. He did not, and was among those who championed the Democratic Party in one of the few geographical areas in California in which the GOP was even somewhat competitive. He was a tireless support of the Silicon Valley Jewish community and worked furtively to develop strong ties between SV and Israel. It was no accident that Israel became not only one of Intel’s research centers but also a major microprocessor manufacturing center—and that faith was returned when the plant remained open during numerous attacks on Israel over the years, with barely a hiccup in production.

There is the oft-uttered phrase “We shall not see his likes again in our lifetime.” It seems likely to apply to Dr. Grove. I hope that it does not, however. The world could use many Andy Groves. He will be missed.


Comments

Name

Email

Website

Speak your mind

Archives

Resources & Links

Search