Number of words: 267

The story now turns to Lewis Terman’s son, Frederick. You will see the name “Terman” all over Stanford’s buildings today. It is mostly Frederick who is being immortalized. The younger Terman, an electrical engineer, was a professor, a dean, and later the acting president of Stanford. As much as anyone, he is responsible for the stature that Stanford has today. Frederick’s main contribution to American culture was as original as his father’s. Hoping to bridge the divide between the academy and the business world, he dreamed of starting an industrial park in Palo Alto next to the university. In 1938 he convinced two of his former engineering students, William Hewlett and David Packard, to set up shop in a Palo Alto garage. Their first product was audio oscillators; Walt Disney’s studio bought eight to use on the soundtrack of Fantasia. Terman also convinced Stanford to set aside a big plot of unused land where other students and professors could start their own businesses. It would help both the university and the local business community, Terman argued. This was a totally novel idea at the time.

In 1956 Terman bagged another high-profile entrepreneur: William Shockley. Shockley felt unappreciated at Bell Labs and let it be known that he intended to start a company to commercialize transistor technology. Terman astutely recognized the importance of Shockley’s ideas. He pulled all possible strings to get Shockley to set up shop near Stanford. Terman also helped Shockley recruit an impressively talented group of engineers, most from back east.

Excerpted from page numbers30-31 of ‘How Would You Move Mount Fuji?’ by William Poundstone.