Micron Technology's founder and first president thinks his former company made "a great decision" in deciding to come to Utah. But by choosing Lehi and not Logan, he says tongue-in-cheek, "Micron picked the right state but the wrong city."
Ward D. Parkinson, who started the giant computer chip firm with his brother and two other men in 1978, is quick to admit a strong bias toward Logan and Utah State University, where he received a bachelor's degree in engineering in 1969."I had a fabulous experience at USU," Parkinson said in an interview Tuesday. "My education there in electrical engineering enabled me to become a world-class contributor to memory chip development."
Parkinson, a native of Blackfoot, Idaho, whose parents also attended USU, says "We had a great class, and I wasn't the best student in it by any means. One classmate went on to be the top engineer at Intel, and another at Motorola." He believes USU's engineering program continues to be "as good as you can find anywhere."
Micron, which announced Monday it would build a $1.3 billion computer chip complex in Lehi, began as a tiny technology consulting firm in Dallas, moving shortly afterward to the basement of a dental building in Boise, the city it still calls home.
Parkinson was president and CEO, and one of the other three principals was his twin brother, Joe, who also attended USU briefly and would succeed Ward Parkinson as president from 1983 until replaced last September by current president and chairman Steve Appleton.
"We had not planned to go into computer chip manufacturing, and our venture into it was totally fortuitous," says Parkinson.
"It started in 1982 after we lost a consulting contract."
Three local men, including a farmer the firm had helped, put up the initial money to do product development. "From there we just rocked and rolled," recalls Parkinson.
Idaho industrialist J.R. Simplot also came to Micron's rescue, advancing the funds to build a manufacturing plant. Simplot continues to be a major Micron shareholder.
The company began offering stock in June 1984 at $14 a share.
It had climbed to $35 within three months and, today, is worth the equivalent of $170 a share. Micron is now the sixth largest manufacturer of memory computer chips in the world.
Joe Parkinson, an attorney, replaced his brother as company president in 1983 and as chairman in 1986. Ward Parkinson left the board and the company in 1989. "I water skied for four years," he says.
Finally, he says, "I got bored and decided to go to law school." He enrolled in the Chicago Kent Law School, run by the Illinois Institute of Technology, and expects to graduate in 1997.
Meanwhile, he looks forward to watching Micron succeed in Utah as it has in Boise. "The work ethic and commitment to education among the people of Utah is very much like we found in Boise," says Parkinson. "I have no doubt your people will help Micron reach new heights in this Utah venture."