showed off his terrific set of teeth. The stare, the voice, the smile—it was all a bit like the movie persona of the most famous of all Grinnell College’s alumni, Gary Cooper. With his strong face, his athlete’s build, and the Gary Cooper manner, Bob Noyce projected what psychologists call the halo effect. People with the halo effect seem to know exactly what they’re doing and, moreover, make you want to admire them for it. They make you see the halos over their heads.
Years later people would naturally wonder where Bob Noyce got his confidence. Many came to the conclusion it was as much from his mother, Harriet Norton Noyce, as from his father. She was a latter-day version of the sort of strong-willed, intelligent, New England-style
woman who had made such a difference during Iowa’s pioneer days a hundred years before. His mother and father, with the help of Rowland Cross, who taught mathematics at Grinnell, arranged for Bob to take a job in the actuarial department of Equitable Life in New York City for the summer. He stayed on at the job during the fall semester, then came back to Grinnell at Christmas and rejoined the senior class in January as the second semester began. Gale was impressed by the aplomb with which the prodigal returned. In his first three years Bob had accumulated so many extra credits, it would take him only this final semester to graduate. He resumed college life, including the extracurricular activities, without skipping a beat. But more than that, Gale was gratified by the way Bob became involved with the new experimental device that was absorbing so much of Gale’s own time: the transistor.
Bob was not the only physics major interested in the transistor, but he was the one who seemed most curious about where this novel mechanism might lead. He went off to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, in the fall to begin his graduate work. When he brought up the subject of the transistor at MIT, even to faculty members, people just looked at him. Even those who had heard of it regarded it merely as a novelty fabricated by the telephone company. There was no course work involving transistors or the theory of solid-state electronics. His dissertation was a “Photoelectric Study of Surface States on Insulators,” which was at best merely background for solid-state electronics. In this area MIT was far behind Grinnell College. For a good four years Grant Gale remained one of the few people Bob Noyce could compare notes with in this new field.
Well, it had been a close one! What if Grant Gale hadn’t gone to school with John Bardeen, and what if Oliver Buckley hadn’t been a Grinnell alumnus? And what if Gale hadn’t bothered to get in touch with the two of them after he read the little squib about the transistor in the newspaper? What if he hadn’t gone to bat for Bob Noyce after the Night of the Luau Pig and the boy had been thrown out of college and that had been that? After all, if Bob hadn’t been able to finish at Grinnell,
he probably never would have been introduced to the transistor. He certainly wouldn’t have come across it at MIT in 1948. Given what Bob Noyce did over the next twenty years, one couldn’t help but wonder about the fortuitous chain of events.
Fortuitous … well! How Josiah Grinnell, up on the plains of Heaven, must have laughed over that!
Grant Gale was the first important physicist in Bob Noyce’s career. The second was William Shockley. After their ambitions had collided one last time, and they had parted company, Noyce had concluded that he and Shockley were two very different people. But in many ways they were alike.
For a start, they both had an amateur’s hambone love of being onstage. At MIT Noyce had sung in choral groups. Early in the summer of 1953, after he had received his Ph.D., he went over to Tufts College to sing and act in a program of musicals presented by the college. The costume director was a girl named Elizabeth
Years later people would naturally wonder where Bob Noyce got his confidence. Many came to the conclusion it was as much from his mother, Harriet Norton Noyce, as from his father. She was a latter-day version of the sort of strong-willed, intelligent, New England-style
woman who had made such a difference during Iowa’s pioneer days a hundred years before. His mother and father, with the help of Rowland Cross, who taught mathematics at Grinnell, arranged for Bob to take a job in the actuarial department of Equitable Life in New York City for the summer. He stayed on at the job during the fall semester, then came back to Grinnell at Christmas and rejoined the senior class in January as the second semester began. Gale was impressed by the aplomb with which the prodigal returned. In his first three years Bob had accumulated so many extra credits, it would take him only this final semester to graduate. He resumed college life, including the extracurricular activities, without skipping a beat. But more than that, Gale was gratified by the way Bob became involved with the new experimental device that was absorbing so much of Gale’s own time: the transistor.
Bob was not the only physics major interested in the transistor, but he was the one who seemed most curious about where this novel mechanism might lead. He went off to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, in the fall to begin his graduate work. When he brought up the subject of the transistor at MIT, even to faculty members, people just looked at him. Even those who had heard of it regarded it merely as a novelty fabricated by the telephone company. There was no course work involving transistors or the theory of solid-state electronics. His dissertation was a “Photoelectric Study of Surface States on Insulators,” which was at best merely background for solid-state electronics. In this area MIT was far behind Grinnell College. For a good four years Grant Gale remained one of the few people Bob Noyce could compare notes with in this new field.
Well, it had been a close one! What if Grant Gale hadn’t gone to school with John Bardeen, and what if Oliver Buckley hadn’t been a Grinnell alumnus? And what if Gale hadn’t bothered to get in touch with the two of them after he read the little squib about the transistor in the newspaper? What if he hadn’t gone to bat for Bob Noyce after the Night of the Luau Pig and the boy had been thrown out of college and that had been that? After all, if Bob hadn’t been able to finish at Grinnell,
he probably never would have been introduced to the transistor. He certainly wouldn’t have come across it at MIT in 1948. Given what Bob Noyce did over the next twenty years, one couldn’t help but wonder about the fortuitous chain of events.
Fortuitous … well! How Josiah Grinnell, up on the plains of Heaven, must have laughed over that!
Grant Gale was the first important physicist in Bob Noyce’s career. The second was William Shockley. After their ambitions had collided one last time, and they had parted company, Noyce had concluded that he and Shockley were two very different people. But in many ways they were alike.
For a start, they both had an amateur’s hambone love of being onstage. At MIT Noyce had sung in choral groups. Early in the summer of 1953, after he had received his Ph.D., he went over to Tufts College to sing and act in a program of musicals presented by the college. The costume director was a girl named Elizabeth
Similar Books
The Channel (The Gifted Book 2)
C. L. McCourt
UpAndComing
Christi Ann
For Lovers Only
Alex Hairston
Broken Heart 04 Wait till Your Vampire Gets Home
Michele Bardsley
Separate Roads
Tracie Peterson, Judith Pella
Eden's Hammer
Lloyd Tackitt
State of Grace
Joy Williams
Witch Hammer
M. J. Trow
The Book of Joe
Jonathan Tropper