| Chris Jones ’90 Processor architect – NVIDIA Corporation |
The following interview with Brother Jones appeared in the summer 2008 Arrow:
Q: Why did you join Psi Upsilon?
A: I spent much of the Fall of ‘86 living in “temporary housing” in the dorms. With a little encouragement from a few sophomores I knew, I decided to rush to see what it was all about. The first thing I noticed about Psi U was the cool house. The next thing I was that the guys living there were a lot more interesting than many of the other houses I had vis- ited. I remember talking with Brian Hughes ‘89.5 for quite a while and sud- denly realizing that I felt like I was al- ready part of the house. I pledged right away and moved in-house the next se- mester.
Q: What was your nickname?
A: “Plaz,” which is short for Plastic Man. Matt Petersen ‘89 gave me the name. Might have had something to do with my ability to reach across the din- ner table to grab whatever food was left before anybody else could get to it!
Q: What do you do for a living?
A: I design microprocessors.
I worked at Intel for my first eleven years out of school working on the 486 DX2, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, and Pentium 4 designs. In 2002 I switched to working on high speed serial communication chips for a start-up com- pany which was subsequently purchased by Synopsys. I was one of the founders for another start-up company called Stexar Corporation in 2004, and am cur- rently a processor architect at NVIDIA Corporation.
Q: What hobbies do you enjoy?
A: I received my private pilot certificate a little over two years ago and enjoy flying around the Northwest. The Cas- cade Mountains, the Columbia River Gorge, and the Pacific Coast offer some amazing scenery and are even more spectacular from a few thousand feet in the air. My wife and I try to get in one SCUBA trip each year.
Q: Tell us about your family?
A: When I graduated, I landed a job with Intel in Oregon. Intel sent a crew of movers to my house in Moline, IL to pack up my dorm-room sized belongings and my slick new Mitsubishi Eclipse. After packing up my stuff they went over to pack up the next person on their list, who happened to be Barb Dierickx from Bettendorf, IA. The packers were mainly older women and one of them mentioned my name to Barb who was also moving to Portland. A week later, on my first day of work I was sitting in orientation class with ten other new Intel employees including, of course, Barb Dierickx. As a good mid-western girl, she was nice enough to come up and introduce herself during a short break. I thought Intel provided a pretty nice relo- cation package—moving expenses, good benefits, and a girlfriend. What a great place to work! We just celebrated our 15 year wedding anniversary. Barb is now a software product manager at Nike, which means we get 40-50% employee discounts on Nike gear and end up buy- ing five times as many shoes as we would otherwise.
Q: What is your favorite memory from your fraternity days?
A: Hmmm….some of it is a little fuzzy. I guess my favorite memories include Walk Out to the University of Michigan and screaming myself hoarse at various Illini football games with Boyd Bach’s (‘91) family. Of course the topper would have to be winning the DX All Campus Foosball Tournament cham- pionship trophy with my partner and Minister of Defense, Dean Marinakis ‘90.
Q: Did you live in the house?
A: I lived in-house until my senior year, when I moved out to an apartment closer to the engineering campus. My room- mates in the house included Sam Lim ‘87; Joseph P. Fagan, Jr. ‘91; and Mark Simek ‘92.5.
Q: What other organizations are you involved with?
A: Barb and I are long-time supporters of the Carter Center, which provides health services and infrastructure to some of the poorest nations on Earth, and which also promotes democracy and peace processes throughout the world. Having met former president Jimmy Carter a few times, I am still in awe at how much he has managed to accom- plish even after he turned 80 years old a few years back.
Q: What affiliations do you currently have and/or public service do you par- ticipate in?
A: Having no children of our own, Barb and I have managed to find the time and energy to support a few kid-oriented organizations. I am a Big Brother to a great kid named Corey, and we get to- gether about once a week for activities such as bowling or bicycling. I am also the youth director for a church in down- town Portland. Spending lots of time with kids keeps you feeling young, but sleeping on the floor during lock-in events reminds you that maybe you’re not as young as you might think! Work- ing with the youth group gets us in- volved in other community service pro- jects such as the helping out the Oregon Food Bank, feeding groups at local shel- ters, and volunteering at the Oregon Hu- mane Society.
Q: Who from the house would you most like to find?
A: Rob Auw ‘89 and Todd Ginestra ‘88.
Q: What advice would you give to an undergraduate brother?
A: Enjoy it while you can! Seriously, take advantage of every opportunity you have while you are there. Join clubs, play intramural sports, take a year abroad, and study hard. Some of these opportunities may not come again. You can catch up on your sleep when you are done with school.�
Brothers may visit the Jones Family website at vandogh.org.