Julius M. Kleiner and a Silicon Valley Gift
Near Boise, Idaho
This park carries the name of Julius M. Kleiner, and behind it lies an unlikely thread connecting an Idaho dairy farm to the birth of Silicon Valley. Julius Kleiner was an immigrant from Russia who came to America in nineteen fifteen, worked in the creamery business, and in nineteen forty-four bought land here in Meridian, turning it into a dairy farm.
His son Eugene, born in Vienna, went on to become one of the founders of Fairchild Semiconductor and a cofounder of Kleiner Perkins, perhaps the most famous venture capital firm in the world, funders of countless technology companies. To honor his father, Eugene donated this family farmland to the city of Meridian. The sixty-acre Julius M.
Kleiner Memorial Park opened in twenty twelve. So the green lawns here are a son's tribute, paid forward from the fortunes of California's chip and computer revolution.
