Without a high school diploma, Eugene Kleiner '48, H'89 presented himself to the admissions office of Polytechnic University (then called the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn) and was admitted on a GI Bill and his innate talents. From there Kleiner, with seven colleagues known as the "Fairchild Eight," founded Fairchild Semiconductor, established the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, and became a founding father of Silicon Valley, by investing in more than 300 information technology and biotech firms, including: Amazon.com, AOL, Electronic Arts, Flextronics, Genentech, Google, Hybritech, Intel, Intuit, LSI Logic, Lotus Development, Macromedia, Netscape, Palm, Quantum, Segway, Sun Microsystems and Tandem. Despite his achievements as a businessman and venture capitalist, throughout his life Kleiner always harkened back to his roots when asked his occupation by simply responding "an engineer." In a characteristic understatement reflecting on his accomplishments, Kleiner said, "It was not a life that was wasted."