Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, later known as Shockley Transistor Corporation, was a pioneering semiconductor developer founded by William Shockley, and funded by Beckman Instruments, Inc., in 1955. It was the first high technology company in what came to be known as Silicon Valley to work on silicon-based semiconductor devices. In 1957, the eight leading scientists resigned and became the core of what became Fairchild Semiconductor. Shockley Semiconductor never recovered from this departure, and was purchased by Clevite in 1960, then sold to ITT in 1968, and shortly after, officially closed. The building remained, but was repurposed as a retail store. By 2015 plans were made to demolish the site to develop a new building complex. By 2017 the site was redeveloped with new signage marking it as the "Real Birthplace of Silicon Valley." Shockley's return to California William Shockley received his undergraduate degree from Caltech and moved east to complete his PhD at MIT with a focus on physics. He graduated in 1936 and immediately went to work at Bell Labs. Through the 1930s and '40s he worked on electron devices, and increasingly with semiconductor materials, pioneering the field of solid state electronics. This led to the 1947 creation of the first transistor, in partnership with John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and others. Through the early 1950s a series of events led to Shockley becoming increasingly upset with Bell's management, and especially what he saw as a slighting when Bell promoted Bardeen and Brattain's names ahead of his own on the transistor's patent. However, others that worked with him suggested the reason for these issues was Shockley's abrasive management style, and it was this reason that he was constantly passed over for promotion within the company. These issues came to a head in 1953 and he took a sabbatical and returned to Caltech as a visiting professor. Shockley struck up a friendship with Arnold Orville Beckman, who had invented the pH meter in 1934. Shockley had become convinced that the natural capabilities of silicon meant it would eventually replace germanium as the primary material for transistor construction. Texas Instruments had recently started production of silicon transistors (in 1954), and Shockley thought he could create a superior product. Beckman agreed to back Shockley's efforts in this area, under the umbrella of his company, Beckman Instruments. However, Shockley's mother was aging and often ill, and he decided to live closer to her house in