Jack Kilby Weekend — October 12-14, 2001
Great Bend, Kansas

This 6’6" soft-spoken Great Bend native invented the microchip for Texas Instruments in 1958. The invention launched the Second Industrial Revolution, known as the Information Age. Prior to Kilby’s invention, electronic products were too large and bulky, with too many wires and connections. Kilby solved the problem with a simple idea----placing all of the electronic components on a silicon surface, which eliminated the need for the excessive wires and connections. Kilby later invented the hand-held calculator--- a practical application of his microchip idea.

Kilby has received many awards, the biggest of which was the Nobel Prize forPhysics in 2000. Receiving the Nobel Prize from the King of Sweden last fall was heady wine for a small town boy from Great Bend.

Kilby’s GBHS Classmates describe him as quiet, scholarly, and humble. Most remember him for his towering 6’6’’ frame. Kilby’s 1941 Great Bend High School classmates will get to personally congratulate him on his Nobel Prize on October 13 when Kilby returns to Great Bend for his 60th High School Class Reunion.

Kilby moved to Great Bend as a young boy when his father Hubert Kilby became President of Kansas Power Co., which had its headquarters in Great Bend. Jack, his parents, and his sister, Jane, lived in the Victorian house at 1407 Washington known by many "old-timers" as "the Komarek house." Stan and Kathy Lamb now own the house. Some say the house is haunted, a legend which grew by leaps and bounds when the Komareks occupied the house long after the Kilby’s left. The Kilby’s used the south entrance for their address---- 2606 Forest.

The 1941 yearbook for Great Bend High School indicates that as a sophomore, Kilby was active in band, football, Music Contests, and Camera Club. As a Junior, he was active in band, music contests, basketball, and Camera Club. As a Senior, Jack served as President of the Camera Club, and was active on the yearbook staff, Student Council, and served as the Electrician for the Class Play. Kilby was a member of the National Honor Society, which indicates he graduated in the upper 1/3 of his class. Kilby often credits a history teacher (apparently Miss Mering) with broadening his horizons by showing him new ways of looking at problems.

As a boy, Kilby used to travel the western half of the state with his father in the summers, checking on various power plants in the family’s 1935 Buick. When a severe ice storm crippled Western Kansas in 1937, Kilby and his Dad borrowed a neighbor’s ham radio to communicate with the various power plants around the state. Kilby became interested in ham radio, and got his license from the FCC, with his own set of call letters---W9GTY.