Elizabeth Noyce (' Bottomley; October 7, 1930 – September 18, 1996) was an American philanthropist, and former wife of Fairchild Semiconductor general manager and a founder of Intel Corporation, Robert Noyce.

Biography

Noyce was born Elizabeth Bottomley in

Auburn, Massachusetts Auburn is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 16,889 at the 2020 census. History The Auburn area was first settled in 1714 as of today outer parts of Worcester, Sutton, Leicester and Oxford, Massachus ...

, United States, the daughter of Frank Bottomley and Helen McLaren. She was a 1951 graduate of

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

, located in the Boston suburb of Medford. In the early 1950s, Robert Noyce was working on his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

, in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

near Boston. The couple married in 1953, the year Robert received his PhD. Several years later the Noyces moved to California, where Nobel laureate

William Shockley William Bradford Shockley Jr. (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was an American physicist and inventor. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The three scientists were jointl ...

had started

Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory was a pioneering semiconductor developer founded by William Shockley, and funded by Beckman Instruments, Inc., in 1955. It was the first high technology company in what came to be known as Silicon Valley to w ...

in Mountain View in 1956. Robert was one of the " traitorous eight" who left Shockley in 1957 and started Fairchild Semiconductor. He and

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globa ...

Jack Kilby Jack St. Clair Kilby (November 8, 1923 – June 20, 2005) was an American electrical engineer who took part (along with Robert Noyce of Fairchild) in the realization of the first integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments (TI) in 1 ...

are credited with inventing the integrated circuit. In 1968, Noyce and

Gordon Moore Gordon Earle Moore (born January 3, 1929) is an American businessman, engineer, and the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Intel Corporation. He is also the original proponent of Moore's law. As of March 2021, Moore's net worth is repor ...

started

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

in Mountain View. Intel developed the first commercially available

dynamic RAM Dynamic random-access memory (dynamic RAM or DRAM) is a type of random-access semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell, usually consisting of a tiny capacitor and a transistor, both typically based on metal-oxid ...

(i1103),

EPROM An EPROM (rarely EROM), or erasable programmable read-only memory, is a type of programmable read-only memory (PROM) chip that retains its data when its power supply is switched off. Computer memory that can retrieve stored data after a power s ...

(i1702), and commercially available

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...

(i4004), becoming a huge financial success. During this time, the couple lived in Los Altos. They had four children: William B., Pendred, Priscilla, and Margaret. Elizabeth loved

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

, so the family acquired a 50-acre coastal summer home in

Bremen, Maine Bremen ( ) is a small town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The population was 823 at the 2020 census. Located on Muscongus Bay and the Gulf of Maine, it includes the villages of Broad Cove, Turners Corner, Bremen, Medomak and Muscongu ...

. She and the children would summer there. Robert would visit during breaks from Intel. He also started an extramarital affair with a 28-year-old Intel mask designer, Barbara Maness, conducted as an "open secret" at Intel. Elizabeth learned of it and the marriage ended in divorce in 1975. Under

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

's community property law she received half of the couple's assets. Robert later married Ann Bowers, Intel's head of personnel. Elizabeth then took up full residence in Bremen. She became the area's leading philanthropist and art collector. Among other major gifts, she established the

Libra Foundation The Libra Foundation is among the largest charitable organizations in the state of Maine. Major projects include Pineland Farms, the Maine Winter Sports Center, and The MaineHealth Raising Readers program. The October Corporation is an affiliate ...

. Noyce, a smoker, developed emphysema, and died from a heart attack on September 18, 1996, aged 65, at her home.

References

External links

Sarasota Herald-Tribune 27 September 1996Eugene Register-Guard 27 September 1996State Bids Goodbye to 'Best Friend': Elizabeth Noyce is praised for her Generosity to Maine at a Portland Memorial Service, John Richardson Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald (ME), September 24, 1996. About 1200 people, including school children and four Maine governors, attended. Governor Angus King spoke.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Noyce, Elizabeth 1930 births 1996 deaths People from Auburn, Massachusetts Tufts University alumni Deaths from emphysema Philanthropists from Maine People from Bremen, Maine 20th-century American philanthropists