Jack Kilby, recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics, spoke with Great Bend High School physics students Friday afternoon. Kilby, a 1941 graduate of GBHS who grew up to invent the microchip, was honored in his hometown with Jack Kilby Weekend. CHRIS GRENZ/The Capital-Journal

GREAT BEND -- Welcome home, Nobel son.

The slogan appeared on button after button pinned to the lapels of well-wishers who came out to see Great Bend's own hometown hero -- Jack St. Clair Kilby.

Kilby, 77, is a 1941 graduate of Great Bend High School who grew up to invent the microchip. Kilby's work in 1958 solved a numbers barrier that had hundreds of scientists stumped and the field of electronics at a near standstill.

The achievement earned him the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics. His invention can be found in everything from desktop computers and wrist watches to cellular telephones and pacemakers.

Jack Kilby Weekend, which coincided with his 60th high school reunion, gave residents of the central Kansas town the chance to honor their brightest star.

There were old friends, kids of old friends, new friends, physicists, computer geeks and HAM radio operators. All of them lined up in the Barton County Historical Museum on Saturday morning for a chance to meet the man who changed the world.

"This is kind of a surprise. It's very flattering," said the 6-foot-6-inch Kilby, who hasn't changed the modest ways his classmates remember. "It's certainly special. A lot of people have done a lot of work and I'm very thankful."

In his classic what's-all-the-fuss-about form, Kilby was humble about it all -- the renaming of Lafayette Park where the Barton County Courthouse sits to Jack Kilby Square, renaming a newly renovated area of the high school to Jack Kilby Commons, and the official signs the city put up on the edge of town alerting motorists that a Nobel Prize winner came from this community.

A 125 percent statue of Kilby will be created for Jack Kilby Square by Great Bend artist Chet Cale. The sculpture will depict Kilby cupping a microchip in his hands as he passes it to a child.

And 300 people, including state and federal officials, honored Kilby at a reception Saturday night.

Jane Kilby, Jack's sister who graduated with the GBHS class of 1943, said her brother is so modest, he wouldn't have minded had there been no fanfare.

"But down deep, I suppose you couldn't help but be pleased," she said. "It's hard for me to imagine that any town could have gone to all the work and trouble they went through to honor him. It's awesome. Whatever word comes after awesome, it's that."

Glenn Opie, a member of the Mayor's Committee to Honor Jack Kilby, recalled the day he saw Kilby's face flash across the TV a year ago with the news of the Nobel Prize.

"My gosh," Opie remembers thinking. "I knew that guy!"

Opie spent the next year helping plan Jack Kilby Weekend.

"It's really exciting the way it all came together," he said. "It exceeds our wildest dreams. I'm absolutely overwhelmed."

As a bonus, Random House released a special Nobel Prize edition of T.R. Reid's 1984 book "The Chip," which documents the story of the microchip's invention. Reid is the London bureau chief for the Washington Post and is an internationally known author and National Public Radio correspondent. He traveled to Great Bend for the occasion.

At a book signing, Kilby ran into Virginia Evans. Her dad, Roy Evans, had a HAM radio that Kilby tinkered with as a teen, which sparked his interest in electronics.

"I remember I'd say, 'Dad! Jack Kilby's here!' I didn't know then that I was talking about a future Nobel Prize winner," Evans said to Kilby. "You probably don't remember me."

"Oh, sure I do," Kilby replied. "You were homecoming queen."

"Oh!" Evans gushed. "You made my day!"

Evans' son, Donald Walters, is a physicist for the Navy in California.

"It's a small world," said Walters, who brought his grandfather's old HAM radios to the museum. "It's amazing how as a small kid, a seed was planted and this is what it grew into."

Tom Shorock was one of the youngest faces in the crowd. The 23-year-old computer science major at The University of Kansas grew up about three blocks from Kilby's former home and called Kilby his boyhood hero.

"I just wish he was getting more recognition," Shorock said.

A lack of recognition is partly why Reid wrote his book. Reid said Kilby is highly deserving of all the attention, including the one bestowed on him by The Topeka Capital-Journal when it named Kilby the 2000 Kansan of the Year.

"Jack Kilby changed the world for the better. It infuriates me that more Americans don't know who he is," Reid said. "I think Jack is really touched that Kansas remembered him and he was made Kansan of the Year."

On Friday, Kilby met with the more than 1,000 Great Bend High School students. Before the assembly, school superintendent Clay Guthmiller said Kilby's visit meant a lot.

"It provides a vision or dream of what kids can do," he said. "If you have the will and the knowledge, you can go as far as you want."

At the assembly, Kilby was helped down the risers, where he picked up the microphone in one giant paw.

"It's great to be back in Great Bend," he said. "I've always thought of this as my hometown and I've been proud of that. I've also been proud I went to Great Bend High School.

"You've got a great school. It's at least twice as nice as the one I went to, so I assume you're learning twice as much. I'm very, very glad to be here. Thank you."

And with those comments, Kilby, a soft-spoken man of few words, returned to his seat.

After the assembly, Kilby met with about 20 physics students where he fielded questions.

How important was his high school education? "It formed the basis for everything I did."

How long did it take to think of the chip? A couple of days.

What is the difference between a scientist and an engineer? A scientist seeks knowledge. An engineer, as Kilby considers himself, applies knowledge.

Do you still use your slide rule? Not for 10 years, he told a group of teenagers who have never seen one.

A former classmate was in the room.

"Most of us old retired guys just sit around and drink coffee," the classmate began. "I read you still have an office at Texas Instruments. What do you do there?"

"Oh," Kilby said. "I go out there a couple hours a week and drink coffee."

And then a student in the back of the room asked Kilby what it felt like to have his picture hanging at the National Inventors Hall of Fame alongside the likes of Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and the Wright brothers.

"Ah," Kilby said dismissively. The class laughed. "It's extremely humbling and flattering. I tend to think it's not warranted."

Great Bend -- and now, at long last, perhaps the rest of the world, too -- would respectfully disagree.

Chris Grenz can be reached at (785) 295-1190 or cgrenz@cjonline.com.