Silicon Valley Pioneers

  This 9’ x 18’ portrait depicts fourteen (14) inventors arrayed in front of the entrance to Stanford University. The central group shows Frederick Terman, professor of electrical engineering at Stanford.  In his right hand he holds a schematic for a device he encouraged William Hewlett to develop.  Considered by many the “Father of Silicon Valley,”  Terman persuaded Hewlett and his friend David Packard, seated on a stool between them, to start their company in Palo Alto.   Their first product, then, was the Audio Oscillator, and their first major client was to be Walt Disney, who purchased a number of these for use in the soundtrack for “Fantasia.”

  Behind Hewlett (in white shirt with typically rolled up sleeves) stands Philo Farnsworth in a green vest, holding the first all electronic television tube, which he called an image dissector.  To his right are Jack McCullough and William  Eitel, founders of Eitel-McCullough, a company which manufactured cutting edge vacuum tubes under the trademark “Eimac.”   Seated across from them is Ralph Heintz, a pioneer in short wave radio.  Behind Heintz is Frederick Kolster, pioneer in radio compasses and receivers for marine navigation.

  To the left of Terman, holding a sheet of papers is Ernest O. Lawrence.  He is shaking hands with Leonard Fuller, president of Federal Telegraph, who is presenting him with a large magnet (seen in back of them) to help in construction of his Cyclotron at the University of California.  Between them stands Cyril  Elwell, founder of Federal Telegraph. 

  To the left of Fuller is Lee DeForest, inventor of the audion tube. 

  At the table behind DeForest is Charles “Doc” Herrold, pioneer in radio broadcasting, and finally in the foreground wearing a blue lab coat is Charles Litton, inventor of the glass tube lathe. 

  The woman to the right, listening to the broadcast by “Doc” Herrold is the artist’s wife Susan, included here as an artistic foil and balance to the figure of Litton.