Elizabeth Noyce

Elizabeth Noyce ( Bottomley; October 7, 1930 – September 18, 1996) was an American philanthropist, and former wife of Fairchild Semiconductor general manager and a founder of Intel Corporation, Robert Noyce.

Biography Noyce was born Elizabeth Bottomley in Auburn, Massachusetts, United States, the daughter of Frank Bottomley and Helen McLaren. She was a 1951 graduate of Tufts University, located in the Boston suburb of Medford.

In the early 1950s, Robert Noyce was working on his doctorate at MIT, in Cambridge near Boston. The couple married in 1953, the year Robert received his PhD. Robert would visit during breaks from Intel.

He also started an extramarital affair with a 28-year-old Intel mask designer, Barbara Maness, conducted as an "open secret" at Intel. Elizabeth learned of it and the marriage ended in divorce in 1975. Under California's community property law she received half of the couple's assets.

Elizabeth then took up full residence in Bremen. She became the area's leading philanthropist and art collector. Among other major gifts, she established the Libra Foundation.

Noyce, a smoker, developed emphysema, and died from a heart attack on September 18, 1996, aged 65, at her home.