IC inventor Jack Kilby, ex-W9GTY, SK

Jack St Clair Kilby, who held the call sign W9GTY in the 1930s and 1940s, died in Dallas June 20 at age 81.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for his part in the invention of the first monolithic integrated
circuit.

A native of Great Bend, Kansas, Kilby has been credited with making the Information Age possible.

He became interested in Amateur Radio after a severe ice storm crippled Western Kansas in 1937.

Following college and a stint in the Army, Kilby went to work on the transistor for Centralab in Milwaukee. In 1958, he moved to Dallas to work for Texas Instruments, where he came upon the idea of creating the integrated circuit.
By 1960 the first chips were made available to industry, and the age of microelectonics was upon us.

A public memorial service for Jack Kilby will be held Monday, June 27, at 10 AM on the Southern Methodist University campus at the Caruth Auditorium in the Meadow School of the Arts, 6101 Bishop Boulevard, Dallas, Texas.

For those wishing to make a memorial contribution, the family has identified the following: The Jack Kilby Fund in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the University of Illinois Foundation, Harker Hall, 1305 West Green, Urbana,
Illinois 61801; and The Great Bend Foundation (Jack Kilby Statue Fund), PO Drawer E, Great Bend, KS 67530.

Source: ARRL Letter - courtesy of The American Radio Relay League

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