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In memory of

Walter Richard Faleschini

Redmond, OR

July 4, 1937 - January 9, 2022

Jul 4, 1937 - Jan 9, 2022

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Walter Faleschini passed away peacefully on January 9th, 2022 in Redmond, Oregon.
Walt was born July 4th, 1937 in Detroit, Michigan to Italian immigrants from Pordenone and Sedigliana. The family left Detroit in 1944 after Walt’s little sister Carol, passed away. Grief stricken, the family drove across country and settled in Santa Clara County.
Walter grew up hard working. He was hired as a paid fireman by the United States Forestry Service at 16 years old. He split his time between high school and fighting fires. He loved to tell the story of driving the fire truck at 17 years old. At this age, he became the proud big brother of Gary Faleschini.
He served in the National Guard for six years as an MP and was based at Camp Roberts where he was honorably discharged.
He met the love of his life, Jodie Parker at a Sam Cooke concert when he was 21 years old and married her months later. They remained married (63 years) and devoted to each other for the rest of his life, raising two children, working hard, building houses and traveling the world.
Walter was a Silicon Valley Pioneer. He joined Fairchild Semiconductor in 1959 and worked with Bill Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Jay Last as well as some of the other founders (years later Jay Last tried to recruit Walt to help form Intel which Walt turned down to spend more time with his family).
After Fairchild, Walt worked at Westinghouse and co-founded Siliconix where he spent 32 years. While at Siliconix, his recommendation of the step-and-repeat camera was put in place. This technology allowed microscopic circuit elements on the surface of silicon chips which was a historic piece of the now famous Moore's Law.
Some of his proudest moments were his daughters' graduation from Harvard Law School and his granddaughters' graduation from Tulane and University of Oregon.
Walt was also an accomplished athlete. He snow-skied and water-skied, ran the San Francisco marathon, golfed and was head of a large hiking group.
Walt is survived by his wife, Jodie Faleschini; son Larry Faleschini and wife; daughter Teri Thompson and son-in-law Mark Caputo; mother of two of his grandchildren, Kelly Faleschini; grandchildren, Nicholas Faleschini, Katherine Faleschini, Teilyn Thompson, Thea Thompson, Colby Faleschini, and Laney Faleschini.

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