A few days back when I was cleaning up my personal email inbox, one particular email caught my attention. It was from my esteemed former colleague Jerry Rosenblum, who is now enjoying his retired life. Jerry and I do not communicate often—in fact last time we communicated was during the early months of COVID in 2020, when both Jerry and I were giving pro bono advice virtually to under-resourced entrepreneurs at the Entrepreneurs’ Legal Advising Clinic (ELAC) organized by the Santa Clara University School of Law. But Jerry has a unique email address that is hard to forget, and I checked that the email indeed came from Jerry’s legitimate address.
The subject line of the email was “Save the Date.” The body
of the email contained the familiar-looking envelope from Punchbowl, saying “You
are Invited” and a link to open the invitation for details. Looked innocuous,
but something told me that this could be a spam—all the years of corporate cybersecurity
training on how not to do stupid mistakes seems to have created some instincts—and
I wrote to Jerry, “Is this a spam email originating from your email address? Even
if it is, at least it gives me a chance to say hello to you.” Jerry is famous
for biking all around Los Altos and Palo Alto. So I added, “Hope
you are still biking,”
Jerry’s reply came promptly. “Mita, you are exactly right. It
is a spam email. Hope you are doing well. I am still going on group bike
rides twice a week.”
Hearing from him assured me that he is doing alright and we
decided to meet for coffee in Palo Alto. I did not know how old Jerry actually
is. But given the fact that he had incorporated Applied Materials (AMAT) as a
young lawyer back in 1967, my guess was that he must be in his late eighties. I
know he has practiced actively at my former law firm till he was eighty. That
is one good thing about being a lawyer. You can keep practicing as long as you
are cognitively sharp. In the silicon valley tech culture plagued by ageism,
this almost seems to be a welcome anomaly. I was curious to see if Jerry would come
to Palo Alto on his bike.
He indeed biked all the way from Los Altos to Palo Alto, when
we met at a nice café (“The Farm,” managed by one of our tennis friends) last
Friday afternoon. Jerry was there exactly at 4 pm. He greeted me and my partner
Ravi warmly. Ravi has worked at Applied Materials for more than thirty years
and was eager to meet the lawyer who had incorporated AMAT. Conversation flowed
freely, as all three of us are semiconductor history nerds. At some point Jerry
reminded himself that he would have to leave soon because he would have to cook
dinner for himself and his ailing wife, who is also close to 90. I was
speechless. Completely awestruck. I am in my fifties and sometimes I feel like
I am getting too old. And here is this evergreen accomplished lawyer, who knew and/or
worked with the silicon valley semiconductor giants like Robert Noyce (founder
of Intel), Jerry Sanders (founder of AMD), Jim Morgan (former CEO of AMAT), and Dan
Maydan (president emeritus of AMAT), still living a normal domestic life at the ripe
young age of 91! Meeting with Jerry gave me a whole new perspective—age is what
you make of it.
And surprisingly Jerry is not the only legendary nonagenarian that I had the good fortune of meeting recently. Two weekends back Ravi and I went to Oakland to visit Ravi’s PhD advisor Adam Heller, 93, and his lovely wife Ilana, 91. Adam advised Ravi at the University of Texas at Austin in the nineties, but they have never lost touch, thanks to Ilana’s flawless management of their lives split between Austin and Oakland. Adam’s story is a true example of how fundamental science conducted at a university laboratory eventually transcends to a life-saving medical device that is a thundering commercial success. Therasense, the company that Adam co-founded with his son and which later got acquired by Abbott Laboratories, gave the world FreeStyle Libre, which is now the best-selling continuous glucose monitor available in the market. As a patent attorney, it was my absolute delight to talk about the technology behind the product, its evolution, its commercialization challenges, and the legal battle over patent rights.
And while Adam is impressive, Ilana is equally impressive
in her own way. I have never met a 91 year old woman who is as sprightly as
Ilana. She even baked a cake for us and shared stories from her life devoted to service as the cohesive
force of the Heller family.
Meeting with Jerry, Adam and Ilana in the last two gorgeous
spring weekends has taught me what it means to be timeless. As I start my
journey as a partner at my new law firm, I could not have asked for more inspiration
than witnessing these three extraordinary human beings living meaningful and
productive lives on their own terms into their nineties. I feel immensely
thankful for the connections that I have made along my professional and
personal journeys.
