It was sad to hear about the death of J.R.Simplot, who put up the founding money for Micron Technology. He had a good innings, dying in May at 99 after the most colourful life.
Simplot made his first fortune raising pigs. Always one for vertical integration he found the cheapest way to feed them was to round up wild horses and slaughter them for pig food.
His next fortune came from inventing a way of freeze-drying potato chips which he sold to MacDonalds.
His entry into the silicon chip business came via his son, who was a college pal of Ward Parkinson. Parkinson was working for Mostek as part of the world's best team of memory designers who developed the industry standard 4K and 16K DRAMs.
When Inmos was founded in 1978, it poached the Mostek memory design team, and Mostek sued Inmos to get them back. The team didn't go back to Mostek, but took a design contract from them, and formed themselves into a company which they called Micron Technology.
A year or two later, J.R. Simplot was persuaded by his son to set up his pal with a fab in
Simplot loved Micron. Throughout Micron's frequent ups and downs he remained a stlwart backer of the company. His phone number was available to anyone, he answered the phone himself, and he'd talk about Micron till you could take no more.
I remember phoning him when Steve Appleton, Micron's CEO, left the company in January 1996. There'd been some kind of undisclosed row, but Simplot just went on and on about what a wonderful guy
A couple of weeks later
Simplot was one of those larger than life Americans. Last year Forbes reckoned him to be the 89th richest American with $3.6 billion. His house was perched on the top of a hill from where he flew a 60 foot US flag.
He was one of those people who made you feel good about life.
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