Charles H. Sutcliffe

1925 - 2022

Charles H SutcliffeCharles Herbert (Chuck) Sutcliffe died September 30, 2022 in Saratoga, California. He was born in Salamanca, New York on November 2, 1925 to Herbert Edward Sutcliffe and Ethel Randall Sutcliffe. An eternal optimist, he saw opportunity at every turn and made lifelong friends wherever he went. He was a gifted athlete and was competitive in everything he did. In May of 1943 he enlisted in the United States Navy and became a Naval Aviator and was trained in carrier landings. He eventually became an instructor and continued to serve in the Naval Reserves until 1955. Chuck received his B.S. in Math and Physics at Grove City College in 1949. He met Florence Graebe in 1948 when he was taking tickets at a dance. They fell in love and married in 1950. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in physics and planned an academic career until twin daughters arrived, when he decided a career in business would better enable him to support a family that grew to include another daughter and a son. He joined Philco Corporation eventually becoming General Manager of their Semiconductor division, and General Instrument as Vice President and General Manager of their Rectifier Division. In 1966, Robert Noyce, a former colleague at Philco, enticed Chuck to move his family to Silicon Valley in California. He worked at Fairchild Semiconductor, a company Noyce co-founded, eventually serving as Director of Operations, MOS, Power Devices and Instrumentation Division. In 1969 he co-founded Four-Phase Systems and in 1971 founded Standard Microsystems. He worked for many pioneering tech companies, including Applied Materials, Inc and served as president of Applied Implant Technology, a subsidiary of Applied Materials. Silicon Valley in the 1970s and '80s was a cauldron of rapidly changing technologies, start-ups, acquisitions, and reorganizations. Chuck found himself changing jobs often, sometimes not of his own choosing. He would joke that when he took a vacation he would never know if he had a job to come back to. He created a unique career for himself to fit this rapidly changing environment by working with venture capitalists and serving as interim chief executive officer or "CEO to go". He served in this role at many companies including Benzing Technologies and most prominently, Cisco Systems. He was also involved in organizing and running the trade organization SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Institute). Chuck and Flo were very active in The Presbyterian Church of Los Gatos. Chuck served on the Session and Flo was a Deacon. They enjoyed singing in the choir, and Chuck was a member of the Santa Clara Chorale. They had a condo in Bear Valley where they loved to ski in the winter and attend the Bear Valley Music festival in the summer. They were great supporters of the music festival, which was a highlight of their year. Flo Sutcliffe preceded Chuck in death on July 19, 2018. Flo raised four children and always was an active volunteer in her community, among other things, at the Presbyterian Church, for the Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts, and as a poll worker even using her house as a polling place. After their family was raised, Flo became an adept travel planner and they traversed the globe until dementia began to rob them both of their memories and abilities. Chuck is survived by his four children, Linda Edwards (Dean), Leslie Cohn (Charles), Lorri Sutcliffe and Chip Sutcliffe, three grandchildren, Eric Edwards (Sara Sutherland), Jill Kendall (Cory), and Brian Edwards (Katy Betts) and seven great grandchildren. Chuck's ashes will join Flo's in the Memorial Garden at The Presbyterian Church of Los Gatos. A memorial service will be held for both of them at a future date, also at the Los Gatos Presbyterian Church.