Edmund Shea Jr. Dies at 80

Edmund H. Shea Jr., a venture investing pioneer at San Francisco-based investment bank Hambrecht & Quist in the 1960s, passed away August 13 at his home in San Marino, according to an announcement today from J.F. Shea Co., Inc., the family-owned civil contracting and home-building company Shea helped to lead. Between 1960 and 2000, Shea invested personal and family funds in hundreds of startups, including Activision, Adobe, AES Corporation, Affymax, Altera, America West Airlines, Brocade, Compaq Coputer, Fabrinet, Genentech, and Peet’s Coffee & Tea. Shea also managed big J.F. Shea construction projects such as the Berkeley Hills tunnel and underground stations for the Bay Area Rapid Transit and Washington D.C. Metro systems.

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/