SAN FRANCISCO - Andy Grove, legendary leader of Intel, noted author of business books and a Silicon Valley power broker of the highest degree, died Monday.
Grove, 79, was one of the earliest leaders at Intel, joining in 1969. He became president in 1979 and CEO in 1987 and served as Chairman of the Board from 1997 to 2005.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of former Intel Chairman and CEO Andy Grove,” said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. “Andy made the impossible happen, time and again, and inspired generations of technologists, entrepreneurs, and business leaders.”
Grove was born András István Gróf in Budapest, Hungary in 1936. He and his mother took on false identities to hide from the Nazis, who invaded their country in 1944 and sent hundreds of thousands of Jews to concentration camps.
In 1956, during the Hungarian Uprising against Soviet control, Grove escaped to the United States. He studied chemical engineering at the City College of New York, and got his Ph.D at the University of California at Berkeley in 1963.
After graduation, Grove was hired by Gordon Moore at Fairchild Semiconductor, considered one of the companies that created Silicon Valley. There he began as a researcher and became to assistant head of research and development under Gordon Moore ,of Moore's Law.
When Robert Noyce, nicknamed "the mayor of Silicon Valley, and Moore left Fairchild to found Intel in 1968, the first employee they hired was Grove.
Grove was the author of a very popular business book, Only the Paranoid Survive, in 1999.
He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Eva, two daughters and eight grandchildren.
A cause of death was not given but Grove had suffered from Parkinson's disease for many years.
