Victor Grinich - Definition and Overview

Victor Grinich (November 24, 1924 - November 5, 2000) was a pioneer in the semiconductor industry and a member of the Traitorous Eight that founded Silicon Valley.

His parents were Croatian immigrants and his original name was Victor Grgurinović. He was born in Aberdeen, Washington. He served in the United States Navy during World War II. To make his last name easier to pronounce during military roll calls, he officially changed it to "Grinich".

Grinich received a Bachelor's degree from the University of Washington in 1950, and a Ph.D. in 1953 from Stanford University. He worked at the seminal Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory of Beckman Instruments, and then left with other disgruntled members of the Traitorous Eight to create the influential Fairchild Semiconductor corporation.

In the 1960s, he left Fairchild Semiconductor to start teaching at UC Berkeley and Stanford University. In 1975, he published a textbook, Introduction to Integrated Circuits.

Grinich died of prostate cancer in 2000.