Jack Kilby - Great Bend, KS. - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

Tribute to Jack Kilby
There was a time when engineers who improved our daily lives and spawned global industries achieved enormous prominence and public attention. Henry Ford and his tin lizzie were recognized everywhere. Alexander Graham Bell was a household name around the planet. But Jack Kilby, a son of Great Bend who changed the world with a good idea, never received that kind of recognition. Outside of the engineering labs, where he is recognized as an immortal, his name generally drew a blank. And that was just fine with Jack.

In his soul, Kilby was an engineer, and proud of it. "It's incredibly satisfying," he said, in his easy, plainspoken Kansas way, "to face some important problem and find a solution that works."

That mattered more than prizes, wealth, or fame. When Kilby won the Nobel Prize in Physics, the inventor of the microchip was introduced in Stockholm as the man who created our modern digital world -- calculators, computers, cell phones, space travel and so forth. Naturally, Jack disagreed.

In his Nobel lecture, he said that kind of talk reminded him of the story of a beaver and a rabbit sitting in the woods near Hoover Dam: "Did you build that one?" the rabbit asked. "No, but it was based on an idea of mine," the beaver replied.

Jack St. Clair Kilby didn't become a household name around the world. But he solved an important problem, a problem of literally cosmic dimensions. For Jack Kilby, the engineer, that was enough.
- T.R. Reid
The Washington Post
Jun 22, 2005 - Revised February 4, 2012

He reaches out his hand, giving his microchip to a young boy. To Kilby's right, a girl eagerly reaches out a hand to her slightly older companion. With her other hand she points toward the stars.

The full-size, bronze statue was dedicated April 28, 2012

URL of the statue: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
You must have visited the site in person, not online.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.