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

Sister Remembers growing up in Great Bend

Jack Kilby and his younger sister Jane Kilby grew up in a classic Victorian house surrounded by books, supportive parents, and one unforgettable history teacher at Great Bend High School.

"Our house was full of books," said Jane Kilby of Dallas, Texas, younger sister of microchip inventor Jack Kilby. Jack and Jane’s parents were graduates of the University of Illinois, and emphasized reading. "We would recite chunks of Shakespeare at the dinner table, and my parents could finish our sentences if we forgot a passage," she said.

In addition to having well-educated parents, the cream-colored Victorian house they lived in seemed like a library. "There were books everywhere," said Jane Kilby.

The Kilbys rented the Victorian house at 1407 Washington from E.R. Moses, Jr. from approximately 1934 to 1951. The house, known by many Great Benders as "the Komarek house," was an ideal atmosphere for learning.

The house was full of books and magazines that belonged to E.R. Moses, Sr, the original builder of the house. "We had a set of 1918 Britannica Encyclopedias, which were considered the best encyclopedias," she said. Also, the basement contained many old issues of Scribners Monthly magazine, full of articles on history, especially the Civil War.

In fact, it was a history teacher ---not a Math or Science teacher---who influenced Jack and Jane Kilby the most. Novma J. Mering was a history teacher who had traveled overseas and was very sophisticated. "She had been to Europe," said Jane Kilby. "Back then a person was considered well-traveled if they had even been to New York."

In explaining historical events, Miss Mering often said, "This wasn’t just happenstance." Jack Kilby recalled this phrase often in his electronics career, seeing how historical events are interconnected, in scientific as well as political history.

Jack and Jane Kilby played in the GBHS band together, at least one year. Jack played a trombone and Jane played a clarinet. "Jack enjoyed photography a great deal, but after the 1937 blizzard, he became terribly interested in ham radio," she said. "He would contact people from all over the place." The family had traveled to Denver so that the teenage Jack Kilby could pass the test to get his own ham radio license. Kilby’s father, the President of Kansas Power Co., had used a local ham radio operator, Roy Evans, to communicate with various power plants during the blizzard of 1937.

Jack and Jane Kilby were both born in Jefferson City, MO. They moved to Salina when their Dad, Hubert S. Kilby, took a job as President of Kansas Power Co. The headquarters for Kansas Power Co. was changed to Great Bend in 1934, so the Kilby’s moved to Great Bend. Jack started 7th grade at the downtown Great Bend Middle School , and Jane began in 4th grade at Washington Elementary School.

Jane Kilby described her brother as "down to earth," with a good sense of humor. She recoiled at the suggestion that Jack shouldn’t be so modest about his accomplishments, recalling that her parents were unpretentious: "You just didn’t toot your own horn. Whatever you did would speak for itself more loudly than anything you could say."

Jack and Jane’s father died in 1972, and their mother died in 1980. "Dad got to see Jack get some credit for his inventions, but Mom got to see him get more credit as time passed," she said.

"Great Bend was a tremendous place to grow up," she said. "You knew who you were and what was expected." Jane Kilby plans to accompany her brother to their hometown on October 12.