Thornton Academy Postscripts Alumni Magazine Fall 2014 | Page 8

Science: Then & Now He knew about Intel
before it was a start-up;
he met Steve Jobs when
Jobs was developing the
prototype for the
Apple-1 personal
computer; and after
working on
semiconductors for
Hewlett Packard, Paul
Allen Grace ‘51 received
the first HP35 electronic
calculator as a gift for his
work on the chips.
It all started in Saco when, from a very young age, Paul
Allen Grace was captivated by science, especially
electronics. A subscription to Popular Science Magazine
further sparked his curiosity in the field, along with
encouragement from his mother. Paul remembers
bringing his homemade, operational Tesla Coil into
Thornton Academy (a Tesla Coil is a resonant
transformer circuit). Paul used vacuum tubes, wire, a
cigar box, and a cardboard tube to wirelessly light a light
bulb three feet away. When he showed his project to his
teacher and the Science Club at TA, he said, “I couldn’t
believe it—they jumped about a foot!” From then on, his
classmates started calling him “The Professor.”

Paul Allen Grace ‘51

RAM and used 355 transistors (for perspective, Intel’s latest
CPU uses over 7 million transistors and is smaller than
Paul’s chip).
Paul remarked, “Being on the leading edge of technology is
marvelous for a high school” and that it’s important for kids
to have early hands-on experiences because the industry
“advances incredibly fast—like the Red Queen said to Alice,
‘You have to run pretty fast just to keep up, and even faster to
get ahead!’”

Did You Know?
Qualifying students from Thornton Academy who
complete a rigorous curriculum in high school (the
STEM diploma endorsement) may now enter the
University of Maine’s Engineering College with
sophomore status.

Paul attended the University of Maine, majoring in
Engineering Physics with a minor in Electronics. He
wrote his thesis on semiconductors and following a stint
in the army, was hired by Raytheon to develop
semiconductors in Massachusetts.
Paul retired twenty-one years ago and now lives at a
6,000-foot elevation on the side of a mountain in
Nevada with his wife Glenys; they have a son, Paul Allen
Jr., and a daughter, Lynn.
Of Thornton Academy’s new engineering partnership
with the University of Maine, he said, “It would have
been perfect for me.” He points out the necessity of
staying ahead of the crowd and continually asking,
“How do we go smaller? How do we use less energy?”
The last memory chip that Paul worked on, which was
state-of-the-art at the time, held eight bytes (64 bits) of

8

Engineering teacher Geoff Slack (right) welcomes Paul
Becker of Becker Structural Engineers, Inc. as a guest
speaker in one of Thornton Academy’s engineering
classes that serves the STEM diploma endorsement.
Mr. Becker shared the complex equations used to evaluate the trusses of the newly-renovated library (seen at
top of photo).

POSTSCRIPTS