Jay Last (elected October 1987) died November 11, 2021. In his vocation and his collecting, Last was a pioneer. A physicist by education, he joined Shockley Semiconductor in 1956. The following year, with seven other scientists—they became known as the “traitorous eight”—he created Fairchild Semiconductor, which developed techniques that would be essential to integrated circuits, the core of the semiconductor industry. Over the following two decades and at various companies, he continued to build what became Silicon Valley. Last began his collection of African art in the 1960s. His memoir, African Art and Silicon Chips: A Life in Science and Art (2015), places his life in the context of the fields that he helped create. He also collected nineteenth-century American lithography and wrote The Color Explosion: Nineteenth-Century American Lithography (2005), which won the American Historical Print Collectors Society’s Newman Award for outstanding book in print studies. For two decades Last was among the Society’s most generous and devoted benefactors, supporting fellowships, acquisitions in graphic arts, and endowing a fund in support of innovation.
Beverly Hills, CA
United States