Monte Toole, high-tech entrepreneur and philanthropist
Thursday, January 29, 2009 | by dan pineThough he made his mark as a high-tech innovator, businessman and philanthropist, Monte Toole learned some important life lessons down on the farm.
To be precise, a Zionist farm in New Jersey that trained Jews bound for the new nation of Israel.
“He spoke of that experience more than he talked about his experience working in Silicon Valley,” said his daughter, Esther Levandoski. “He was training to be on a kibbutz. He had one foot in the old historical way we all were, working on the land, and another foot in being a rebel.”
He died Jan. 22 at his Mill Valley home, from complications due to Parkinson’s disease. He was 78.
“He was a very soft-spoken person, and he never talked about his success,” said his wife, Ruthellen Toole. “He had a fine mind. He was a very unusual man.”
A Silicon Valley pioneer, Toole founded GaSonics in the 1960s. The company developed processes essential to the manufacture of the first computer microchips, and proved an important player in the rise of the semiconductor industry. Toole became a wealthy man, but chose to live modestly and give away enormous sums to charities, many of them Jewish.
His first major gift went to the engineering school at Hebrew University, recalled his wife. “Then he went to [Israel’s] Technion Institute and he started giving them money.”
He was the benefactor of the Toole Center for Youth and Family at the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, and donated to the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and to Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon, where his family belonged. For a time, he sat on the board of directors of the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California (precursor to j.)
Born in 1931 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to an immigrant family, Toole grew up speaking Yiddish. He later graduated from UCLA with a business degree, and started working for IBM. After relocating to Northern California, he began working for Fairchild, a company that made electronic products.
In those days, when computer science was in its infancy, Toole had the idea of high-pressure oxidation to clean silicon plates intended for use as microchips.
It was a million-dollar idea.
Toole grew his company alongside Silicon Valley giants like Intel and AMD. In 1994, GaSonics went public, and a few years after that, Toole sold the company.
Wealth did not change this former socialist. “He bought his shirts at JC Penney. He would say to me, ‘Oh, Esther, I love Jaguars.’ I’d say, ‘You have the money. Buy one.’ But he just couldn’t do it.”
Toole had two children, Esther and David, with his first wife, Betty. Later in life, after a divorce, he met Ruthellen on a blind date. They married 17 years ago.
“He never talked about his success,” said Ruthellen Toole, “but he liked art and music. He was very courageous during his illness.”
Though debilitated by Parkinson’s disease, Toole’s mind remained razor sharp. His daughter notes that only last month, barely able to speak, he still gathered the children and grandchildren around to retell the Chanukah story.
“I believe that Dad would say life gave him everything he would have wanted and more,” noted Levandoski in her eulogy. “He would have liked to be here longer, but he accomplished so much with the life he had.”
Monte Toole is survived by wife Ruthellen, son David Toole of San Francisco, daughter Esther Levandoski of Santa Cruz, brother Julian Toole of San Francisco, and four grandchildren. A memorial service will be held 2 p.m. Feb. 8 at the Osher Marin JCC, 200 N. San Pedro Road, San Rafael.