2020 Greene Scholars Souvenir Book - Web GSP 2020 Souvenir Book (Web) | Page 11

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Celebrating the Life of
FRANK S. GREENE, JR., PHD
October 19, 1938
–
December 26, 2009
Each year we acknowledge the life of Dr. Frank S. Greene who was a scientist, an
educator, a parent, a mentor, a venture capitalist, and a Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
His legacy sets the standard of excellence for the Dr. Frank S. Greene Scholars
Program.
Dr. Frank Greene was one of the first African-Americans pioneering technologies
in Silicon Valley. He was among the first Black students to attend college at
Washington University in St. Louis where he obtained his B.S. in Electrical
Engineering. He continued his education and earned a M.S. in Electrical
Engineering from Purdue University. After earning his M.S., he served four years in
the U.S. Air Force and became an Air Force captain. In 1970, he completed his PhD
in Electrical Engineering at Santa Clara University.
In the mid 1960s, Dr. Greene came to Silicon Valley to join Fairchild Semi-
conductor R&D Labs as a memory chip and system designer. Here, he developed
high-speed semiconductor computer-memory systems. He held the patent for the
integrated circuit that made Fairchild a semiconductor leader in the 1960s.
In the early 1970s, he became an entrepreneur and eventually co-founded and built
two technology companies, Technology Development Corp. and ZeroOne Systems
Inc., that developed software and computer services. He later founded NewVista
Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, with a special focus on minority and
female-headed firms.
He gave back by teaching Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at five
different universities: Howard University, Santa Clara University, Stanford University,
Northwestern University, and Washington University in St. Louis.
On November 14, 2018 the former Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto held a
ceremony celebrating the renaming of the middle school in honor of Dr. Frank S.
Greene. The Palo Alto School Board voted to rename the school after a GSP Scholar
project became the catalyst for the petition to replace David Starr Jordan, an advocate
of eugenics, as the school namesake.
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His most recent project was launching the GO-Positive Foundation, which offers
leadership programs with “core positive values” for high school and college students.
He felt that Vision, Relationships, and Execution (VRE) were the components
of leadership. Dr. Frank S. Greene made a huge impact and his legacy will live on
through the Greene Scholars Program.
Dr. Greene stood among technology giants such as Robert Noyce, William Hewlett,
and David Packard. Dr. Greene is one of the 63 inductees into the Silicon Valley
Engineering Hall of Fame, given by the Silicon Valley Engineering Council.
In addition, he was also the recipient of the Purdue University Outstanding
Electrical Engineer Award, was honored by the title of the Santa Clara University
Distinguished Engineering Alumnus, and was distinguished as one of the 50 Most
Important African-Americans in Technology in an exhibit at Palo Alto City Hall.