Headline May 11, 2015/ "' PHILANTHROPY......'S​ILICON VALLEY'....... GIVING 2.0 '''

"' PHILANTHROPY......'S​ILICON 

VALLEY'....... GIVING 2.0 '''

ON THE BASKETBALL court Arrillaga proved to be as good as the scholarship, serving as  captain and making third team All-American his senior year while emerging a squad-leading 14.2 points a game.

The years at Stanford were formative ones, by all accounts. ''I think he looks back to his simple beginnings, his coming to play basketball at Stanford, then really catching the wave of success after-

And he has never forgotten the fortune of it all,'' says Larry Sonsini, a friend and chairman of the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Arrillaga spent more than a year playingprofessional basketball  -first in Spain, then for the San Francisco Warriors, the precursor to the Golden State team. He quit the warriors just after six weeks -

Not because he couldn't cut it on the court, but because he couldn't countenance the way some of his married teammates behaved. {''Other people were compromising values that he held so dearly,'' says his daughter Laura.

And who in 2011 published a bestselling book on Philanthropy Giving 2.0.,} Arrillaga then worked as a broker of the commercial real estate firm Renault & Handley, at the time in Palo Alto, where he was often so determined to make his properties stand out that he landscaped them himself.

In the early 1960s, Arrillaga met Richard Peery through Peery's uncle, a Wells Fargo executive who suggested they might have a lot in common.

The ambitious Peery hailed from Palo Alto and displayed an entrepreneurial streak early on. By middle school he already owned every gumball machine on Stanford's campus, and during his teens he opened his own miniature golf course.

The two men saw colossal potential in the underdeveloped acres of prune, almond, and cherry orchards occupying much of what was then called Santa Clara Valley.

The semiconductor industry had already to begun to take off. Newer businesses Intel were rapidly expanding and, and Stanford Industrial Park, a  700 - acre  office park that house Hewlett - Packard  {and still does), seemed too small to handle all that tech growth.

With about $2,000 of their own cash  -and some financing assistance from others  -the two scooped thousands of acres of orchards and began development before they had tenants. 

Their speculative approach was essentially unheard of locally, but the two believed that if they built the office space, tenants would come. Peery Arrillaga, as they soon called their business, focused initially on low, concrete buildings, called tilt-ups, in areas like Sunnyvale, San Jose, and Mountain View.

They were cost effective and quick to build. The young entrepreneurs, meanwhile, relied largely on their own capital to fund their ventures. The idea of borrowing was anathema to Arrillaga. ''That antidebt attitude is one of the things that makes him unique,'' says Andreessen.

Arrillaga and Peery each bought a different skill. From years of working in real estate, Peery had developed a good sense of what land to buy, and he knew how to get rapid approval for the construction as well.

Arrillaga handled negotiations with suppliers and tenants. ''John is the psychological genius. He understands people at a very sophisticated level,'' says Ben Horowitz, Andreessen's partner in the Valley venture capital firm that bears their names.

''I've known situations where he has negotiated the other side to an economic loss,'' says Sonsini. ''Then he'll pause and say. 'Look, you really shouldn't give me that much. Let's compromise at this level so you can make a profit.''

Meanwhile the young developer was starting a family of his own. In 1968 he married Frances Marion Cook, a sixth grade public school teacher. She eventually took up director or trustee roles for institutions such as:

Palo Alto Medical Foundation and the Peninsula Center for the Blind and Visually impaired. When their first child, John Jr., was born, Frances left the classroom for good. Laura arrived 11 months later.

Now a professor at Stanford, Laura inherited her passion for philanthropy, directing a non-profit organisation focused on education issues, the Laura-Arrillaga-Andreessen Foundation.

In 1993, Frances succumbed to lung cancer after a 20-month battle. Stanford's alumni center is now named after her.

From the start, he and Peery approached their land deals with an acute sense price and value   -and a challenging short horizon. Boyd Smith Sr., a co-founder of WSJ Properties, a real-estate development company and longtime Peery Arrillaga partner, recalls Peery telling him:

''You make your money when you buy  [not when you sell] . You buy something you know is going to be worth more a month from now, and you buy it at a very advantageous price.''

The Honour and Serving of the  ''technology history- operational research'' continues. Thank you for reading, and, maybe learning.

With respectful dedication Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, Steve Jobs, Bill Hewlett, Dave Packard, Paul Allen, Andy Groove, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and all the technology visionaries of the world.

See Ya all Sirs, on !WOW!   -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Bring On The Future '''

'''Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless