Intevac Founder Norman H. Pond, 82, Passed Away

Intevac, Inc. announces that founder Norman H. Pond passed away last Wednesday at his Los Altos Hills home at the age of 82.

He founded the company in 1991 as a spin-out from Varian Associates, and served as COB until his retirement in 2017. He was Intevac’s CEO from 1991 until 2000, as well as during 2001-2002 and 2012-2013.

Prior to founding Intevac, he served as the president of Varian Associates and previously was a group executive at Teledyne. He served on the boards of Varian Associates, Ebara Technology, the Electronic Industries Association, and IDEMA, an organization in the disk drive industry. He also organized and led the advisory group on electron devices for the Department of Defense.

He received a BS in physics from the Missouri Institute of Science and Technology and an MS in physics from the University of California at Los Angeles.

He is the author of The Tube Guys (2008), the first book on the history of microwave tubes, and how their impact has been essential to our nation’s defense.

Intevac chairman David S. Dury said of his passing: “Norm was a remarkable entrepreneur and a true visionary in the industry. He was a pioneer in developing the night-vision technologies that have become the standard for most all digital night vision programs for the US Military as well as many foreign nations. His pioneering work in magnetic media sputtering spawned the processing technology and the equipment that produces the majority of HDD disks sold in the world today. Norm is survived by his wife Natalie, 3 children and 5 grandchildren, all of whom are in our thoughts and prayers as we sadly say goodbye to a man of impact, who will be greatly missed.”

Intevac was founded in 1991 and has two businesses: thin-film equipment and photonics.