John Osborne

John passed away on February 23 rd after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease. 

John was born in Butte, Montana, to Fairfield and Christine Osborne. John's father was a miner working underground for Anaconda Copper Company, and had an extensive gem and rare mineral collection. John was proud of his Butte heritage and donated his father's collection to Montana Tech's Mining Museum. The collection Is currently on display at the museum.

He graduated from Butte Central High School in 1962. He was a good student, and upon graduation from high school, attended Colorado School of Mines, graduating with a degree in Metallurgy. After Colorado School of Mines, he attended Northwestern University and received a Master's degree in Material Science. Upon graduation, he was offered a position with Motorola in a "new" field called semiconductors. John had a choice between the traditional mining field and the "new" field of semiconductors. He chose semiconductors.

John loved to tell the story about showing up a week early for his job at Motorola. When they told him to come back in a week, he had $100 in his pocket and booked a round-trip flight to Hawaii from Phoenix. Upon arrival into Honolulu, he was out of money, so he hitchhiked to Waikiki, and a kind guy driving a Woody picked him up and delivered him to the Catholic church. He stayed there the week.

John worked in the semiconductor industry his entire career until retirement in 1997, working for Motorola, Phillips Semiconductors, Signetics/LSI Division, and Lam Research. After retiring he served on the Boards of a handful of companies including ChemFirst, MicroProbe, CFM Technologies, and Amkor. He also served in an advisory capacity for Brewer Science and Apex Lithography.

John married Cynthia Smith in 1996, and they were married until his death. They lived on their ranch in Southwest Montana for the last 28 years.

John's passions were mentoring young people, fly-fishing, and living the sporting life that included hunting with his beloved dog Kahi. He counseled countless students on education and career choices, and provided college scholarship money to many students over the years. He was a staunch supporter of the STEM program in the Twin Bridges Schools. His father taught him to hunt and fly fish at an early age. He learned to hunt as a child because his father said when the mines in Butte were on strike, they needed to have food on the table. He traveled to 58 countries, mostly in search of trout.

John will be remembered for his intellect, kindness, thoughtfulness, loyalty, commitment, and generosity. He cared deeply about those around him and invested in the needs of the community. He was understated and always a gentleman.

He is preceded in death by his parents Fairfield and Christine Osborne, and survived by his wife Cynthia Osborne and his faithful hunting dog Kahi.

Please, no donations.

Private services to be held.