Sherman M. Fairchild

American entrepreneur, inventor, amateur pianist and sound recording enthusiast (7 April 1896, Oneonta, NY — 28 March 1971, New York City). Sherman Fairchild established over 70 companies, including Fairchild Semiconductor, which became Silicon Valley's incubator in the 1960s and indirectly led to the formation of modern semiconductor giants Intel and AMD, and Fairchild Recording Equipment Corporation, makers of Fairchild 660/670 limiters, one of the "holy grails" of outboard studio gear. Sherman co-founded jazz labels Chiaroscuro Records and Halcyon Records and operated Sherman Fairchild's Home Studio. He was an Honorary Member and Fellow of Audio Engineering Society. Sherman's father was George Winthrop Fairchild, a co-founder and the first Chairman of IBM. In 1915, Fairchild enrolled in Harvard University, where he invented the first synchronized shutter and flash for the photo camera. Sherman subsequently transferred to University Of Arizona for the drier climate due to his health issues but settled in New York, attending Columbia University for a year. He never graduated and pursued an entrepreneurial career, primarily interested in photography and aeronautics. After his father died in 1924, Sherman Fairchild, as he didn't have siblings, inherited the entire multimillion-dollar estate, becoming the largest individual IBM stockholder. In 1931, Sherman Fairchild started the "Fairchild Recording Equipment Corporation" in Whitestone, New York, mainly producing professional audio electronics. He collaborated with legendary Robert Fine and Lawrence Scully to develop one of the first variable pitch systems for cutting records. The company's best-known product was a tube-based mono compressor Fairchild 660 (and its dual-channel version Fairchild 670), designed by Rein Narma in 1959 for Les Paul; Fairchild licensed Narma's design and hired him as the chief engineer. The first three Fairchild 660s were bought by Les Paul & Mary Ford, a New York-based Olmsted Sound Studios, and Rudy Van Gelder, who used it to cut lacquers for Blue Note and VOX. After hearing Fairchild 660 at Capitol Studios during his American visit, Peter Bown from Abbey Road Studios ordered twelve units. The Beatles often used them, primarily on vocals, but Geoff Emerick also added 660s on Ringo Starr's drums and some piano and guitar tracks. Other notable producers and engineers who favored Fairchild limiters include Chris Thomas on Pete Townshend's solo albums, Jack Joseph Puig, or Tom Elmhirst on Amy Winehouse's Rehab and Adele's Hello. Fairchild 660/670s are still highly desirable due to outstanding tonal characteristics and rareness, fetching prices well above $40,000. In the early 1950s, Sherman Fairchild became the Audio Engineering Society president, revitalizing AES Conventions, suggesting commercial ads in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, and making other crucial organizational changes. AES granted Fairchild the Gold Medal in 1955, followed by AES Award in 1961, Fellowship in '63, and Honorary Membership in 1967. In his modernist New York mansion near Central Park, Sherman Fairchild had a fully-equipped studio with two grand pianos, where many jazz musicians had recorded. He was an avid music fan, co-managed a publishing business with Gene Austin, and extensively collaborated with pianist and composer Marian McPartland and producer, photographer, and ex-CIA agent Hank O'Neal towards the end of his life. In 1969, they co-founded Halcyon Records and then a renowned Chiaroscuro Records. Fairchild died at Roosevelt Hospital in New York at 75 due to acute blood poisoning from the impure batch of intravenous glucose.