As the spouse of Robert Noyce, Bowers’ strong ties to Cal Poly will remain in perpetuity through the Noyce School of Computing and the Learn by Doing impact the school will have
Ann S. Bowers ’59, a pioneering technology industry executive and longtime philanthropist whose gifts transformed environments where technologists and innovators could thrive, died Jan. 24 at her home in Palo Alto, California. Bowers was 86.
Bowers received her B.A. in English at Cornell, where she served as her dormitory’s president and a yearbook editor, and earned an honorary Ph.D. for public service in 2000 from Santa Clara University, where she was a trustee emerita.
Bowers led human resources at Intel Corporation in the 1970s and was one of Apple’s first vice presidents in the 1980s.
She was chair of the board and co-founding trustee of the Noyce Foundation, established in 1990 in memory of her late husband, physicist Robert Norton Noyce, who co-invented the integrated circuit and co-founded Intel. The Noyce Foundation focused on improving math and science instruction and learning in K-12 public schools.
More than 50 years after Robert N. Noyce (with Gordon Moore) found success as co-founders of Intel Corporation, Cal Poly will now have the opportunity to provide faculty and students with resources for teaching and applied research after receiving a generous gift from the Robert N. Noyce Trust for the creation of The Noyce School of Applied Computing.
