14 DAY TRIAL // Edwin James Turney, one of the eight founders of chip giant Advanced Micro Devices, has passed away. Born in Brooklyn, New York on March 26, 1929, Ed died on October, 15, 2008 due to brain cancer, according to his brother George. A funeral mass is expected to be held at 10 a.m on October 18 in the Small Chapel at St. Simons Church in Los Altos, California.
Mr. Turney was best known for his activity within AMD, where he was responsible for buying equipment and overseeing the construction of the company's first chip factory. In addition, as a director of sales, Turney had to deal with the building of a sales organization, including developing a network of electronic distributors, which would have allowed the company to compete with the already established companies, including Intel, Fairchild, National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Motorola and other companies that are no longer active.
In 1969, Jerry Sanders, John Carey, Sven Simonsen, Ed Turney, Jack Gifford, Frank Botte, Jim Files and Larry Stenger founded AMD, a company that Turney later left in 1974. He then joined a series of small semiconductor manufacturing and distribution companies, which recorded some success during his time with them.
However, his period at AMD is said to have been the most successful part of his career. “But he never again reached the heights that he had attained at Fairchild and AMD,” said Stephen Zelencik, who followed Turney throughout the most part of his career. “He spent the last 30 years of his life looking for the next big one – seven days a week, 24 hours a day. “That being said,” Zelencik added, “Ed Turney was a great guy.”
Mr. Turney's family asked that, instead of flowers, donations be made for the Center for Children's Brain Tumors, Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health in Palo Alto, California.