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A portrait of pioneers

by Marge Speidel

Imagine 14 pioneers of the Santa Clara Valley electronics industry gathering in one place at the same time.

That is the scenario artist Robert K. Semans created for his most recent work: a 9-by-18-foot portrait that showcases a group of "pre-Silicon Valley" innovators posing in front of the east wall of the Stanford University quad, with the Memorial Church in the background.

Lee de Forest holds the vacuum tube. Broadcasting pioneer Charles D. Herrold sits at a table in front of an early microphone. A youthful David Packard and William Hewlett display their first product, an audio-oscillator, to Stanford professor Frederick E. Terman.

Philo T. Farnsworth, credited with the invention of television, holds his TV-camera cathode ray tube. Charles Litton works on his glass tube lathe. Leonard Fuller, Cyril Elwell, Ernest O. Lawrence, William Eitel, Jack McCullough, Ralph M. Heintz and Frederick A. Kolster are the others shown.

"All of the inventors lived or worked in the area at one time or another. The time span of the mural is from about 1907 to 1945," said Atherton resident Harold Hohbach, a patent lawyer whose idea sparked the painting. "Each person is shown at the time he worked, although they didn't necessarily know each other."

The portrait is currently available for public viewing at the Court House Plaza, 260 Sheridan Ave., in Palo Alto.

Hohbach got the idea after seeing a photo of a famous 1862 portrait by Christian Schussele honoring 19 Americans whose inventions changed the course of modern history -- including the telegraph, sewing machine and cotton gin.

Aware that the contributions of Santa Clara Valley electronics pioneers were just as significant, Hohbach thought a mural would be appropriate.

"We chose Stanford for the setting because all of the individuals would have visited the campus at various times, and because the setting remains the same," Hohbach said.

To select the 14 men in the mural, Hohbach enlisted the help of the Perham Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the history of the electronics industry. Donald F. Koijane of Menlo Park has kept track of the electronics industry since moving to the area in 1967. As president of the foundation for 10 years, he made its archives available and, with input from others, he and Hohbach made the choices.

"The foundation essentially covered the history of the period Harold Hohbach wanted to represent. We're talking about the era before Silicon Valley," Koijane said. "All of these people worked prior to the invention of the transistor in 1948."

The foundation's collection was housed by Foothill College's Electronics Museum from 1972 until 1991. In February, the foundation merged with the History San Jose museum. It moved its library, artifacts and memorabilia -- a collection of pre-transistor technology large enough to fill a football field.

Semans, an accomplished portrait artist from San Jose, began work on the oil painting in 1998 and finished it in 2002.

"We started by assembling a group of people together, chosen from the size of each man as we got it from family and photos, since no one in the group is still living. We got everyone together on the Stanford quad for positioning and planned to take photographs. The light was all wrong, so I ended up photographing the figures elsewhere on the quad," he said.

"I had no master plan and this was the first time I had worked with that many figures. I like to design and arrange the forms before I start painting. It was a learning experience, trying various arrangements and then modifying the design. I spent many hours working with Adobe Photoshop before hitting on the final format."

Getting the historical details and researching all the devices shown with their inventors was an enormous project, and took more time than either he or Hohbach had estimated, he said.

One quirky addition to the painting is a lone woman clad in a white dress. She is seated in the foreground, listening to sounds transmitted by Herrold's equipment. That's Semans' wife, Susan.

"I wanted to get a woman in there to break up the guy thing," he said.

Semans, whose resume includes seven portraits for the NASA/Ames Research Center's Hall of Fame, painted the electronics mural in three panels in a dairy barn he rented in Gilroy.

"I needed a big area. This place was just big enough, it was a quiet location and the rent was cheap," he said, adding that he still works there.

The painting seems to be something any local museum would love to have. But a cloud hangs over it: the artist has not been fully paid. Until that happens, its future is uncertain. If the fee is paid, the painting will become the property of the Silicon Valley Luminary Society. If not, it will revert to Semans.

The Luminary Society, founded by Hohbach, will hold a private fund-raising reception this Sunday.

Eventually the History San Jose museum would like to have the Semans mural, according to museum President and CEO David Crosson -- but not unless the artist's fee is paid. Also up in the air is whether Semans will create additional portraits.

"If this ends on a happy note and the fee is resolved to my satisfaction, I would look forward to doing more murals in the series," Semans said.

Subsequent versions would include other industry pioneers, such as Russell and Sigurd Varian, brothers and founders of Varian Associates, and Alexander Poniatoff, founder of Ampex Corp.

What: The Silicon Valley Luminary Society presents the inauguration and viewing of its first commissioned work, a portrait of 14 electronic-industry pioneers by Robert K. Semans. Contributions to the society are tax-deductible and will be used primarily to pay the artist's fees.

Where: Court House Plaza, 260 Sheridan Ave. in Palo Alto

When: Viewing hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Cost: Admission is free.

Info: Call (650) 322-8242.