Russell and Sigurd Varian

The Varian brothers' parents, John and Agnes Varian, were born and raised in Ireland,[4] and were members of the Theosophical Society in Dublin. They emigrated to the United States in 1894,[5] and settled in Syracuse, New York, where they became involved with a theosophical group headed by William Dower. After Dower moved to Halcyon, California, they joined him in 1914, shortly after Halcyon's founding. It was a utopian community that included a sanatorium for the treatment of liquor, morphine, and opium addiction, with socialist leanings and some communal property.[6] John Varian became a leader of the Temple of the People at Halcyon, worked as a chiropractor and masseur,[5] wrote theosophist poetry and socialist tracts,[7] and pursued an interest in Irish myth and history. Agnes was the first Halcyon storekeeper and postmistress.[8]

John and Agnes had three sons, Russell, Sigurd and Eric.[8] The family was not wealthy,[9] but noted in the community for being loving, humorous and adventurous. All three boys exhibited an early fascination with electricity, which included pranks such as attaching electrical outlets to bed springs and door knobs to give visitors minor electric shocks.[8] Russell was named in honor of the poet "Æ", George Russell, whom John had befriended in Ireland.[5] Russell was dyslexic, and in his childhood he was considered by many to be "slow", although later events would demonstrate the true extent of his intellect; Sigurd was the more outgoing of the older two siblings.[10]

Composer Henry Cowell befriended Russell in 1911,[11] when both were in their teens. A piano sonata that Cowell composed for Russell brought Cowell to the attention of John Varian,[12] who, in 1917, asked Cowell to write the prelude for a stage production of John's Irish mythical poetry cycle, The Building of Banba. This piece, titled The Tides of Manaunaun, became Cowell's most famous and widely performed work.[11]

Cowell was also a music tutor of Ansel Adams, and the Varian family in turn became friends with Adams,[12] who became friends with Russell and Sigurd through their mutual activity in the Sierra Club.[5] Adams knew the family for more than 30 years,[12] and was a hiking companion of Russell's; the pair made many trips into the Sierras.[13] Adams later used a line from one of John Varian's poems, "...What Majestic Word", as the title of his 1963 Portfolio Four, which he dedicated to Russell's memory.[14] The portfolio, of which only 200 copies were printed, was narrated with the words of John and Russell Varian, and sold as a fundraiser for the Sierra Club.[13]

Russell earned bachelor's and master's degrees in physics from Stanford University, compensating for his learning disabilities with what was described as hard work and "sheer force of will".[10] Because of his reading and math difficulties, he took six years to graduate, switching from social sciences to physics. His application to the PhD program at Stanford was rejected. He completed his master's degree in 1927, and went to work at Humble Oil, staying there for five months and receiving a patent for a vibrating magnetometer. Later he went to work in the San Francisco area and was introduced to television technology through a job with Philo Farnsworth.[10][15][16]

Sigurd attended California Polytechnic State University, but, mostly owing to boredom, dropped out and never completed a college degree.[17] Through much of his career, Sigurd was periodically ill because of tuberculosis. After a brief stint working for Southern California Edison Company stringing power lines, he took flying lessons and became a pilot, airplane mechanic,[17] and self-taught engineer.[1] He worked as a barnstormer and later as a pilot for Pan American Airways, at a time when the company developed new routes into Latin America.[10][16] Sigurd was one of the pilots Pan Am selected for their first flights to Mexico and Central America, and while working as an airline captain, he lived in Mexico from 1929 to 1934.[18] From this experience, he discovered many problems with existing maps, finding, for example, that some Mexican charts showed swamps where there were actually mountains. He also realized how difficult it was to land safely or to detect other planes at night or when it was overcast. As a result, he was very familiar with the inadequacies of existing navigational equipment and became interested in ways to make flying safer.[19]

In the early 1930s, in addition to a strong interest in navigation,[15] Sigurd became concerned about the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany and the political situation in Spain.[10] His experience as a pilot in Central and South America made him particularly aware of the vulnerability of the Panama Canal to enemy attack, as he believed it was relatively simple to fly over a military target at night or in heavy overcast sky in the absence of a defense warning system.[19] Edward Ginzton, who later helped the brothers establish Varian Associates, stated: "[Sigurd] felt that Hitler could easily establish bases in Central America, from which his planes could fly into the United States at night, or at low elevations, and drop bombs, without ever being detected."[10]

A reflex klystron (1953)

Russell and Sigurd founded Varian Associates in 1948, along with Hansen and Ginzton. They initially created the company to commercialize the klystron[2] and develop other technologies, such as small linear accelerators to generate photons for external-beam radiation therapy. They also were interested in nuclear magnetic resonance technology. Russell's wife, Dorothy, was also active in the development of the company and its operations.[15] The Articles of Incorporation were filed on April 20, 1948, and signed by nine directors: Ginzton, who had worked with the Varian brothers since his days as a doctoral student; Hansen, Richard M. Leonard, an attorney; Leonard I. Schiff, then head of the physics department at Stanford; H. Myrl Stearns, Russell, Dorothy, Sigurd and Paul B. Hunter. The company began with six full-time employees: the Varian brothers, Dorothy, Myrl Stearns, Fred Salisbury, and Don Snow. Technical and business assistance came from several members of the faculty at Stanford University, including Ginzton, Marvin Chodorow, Hansen, and Leonard Schiff.[31][32] Francis Farquhar, an accountant and friend of Russell's from the Sierra Club, later became a director, as did Frederick Terman, Dean of Engineering at Stanford, and David Packard, of Hewlett-Packard.[31] Russell served as the company president and a board member until his death;[15] Sigurd served as vice president for engineering, and served on the board of directors until his death, sometimes serving as chairman of the board.[3] After the deaths of both Varian brothers, Ginzton became the company's CEO.

The company was initially headquartered in San Carlos, California,[33] and started with only $22,000 in funding.[31] Russell's insistence that the company be owned by its employees and his refusal to accept outside investors led to problems in raising additional capital.[34] Hansen mortgaged his home for $17,000 to raise additional cash, and the group sought out funds from their friends.[34] Ultimately, however, the company raised $120,000 of necessary capital via an offer of stock to all employees, directors, consultants, and a few sympathetic local investors who shared the company's goals.[34] Military contracts for technology deemed necessary during the Cold War, including some classified projects, also helped the firm succeed.[34] In 1953, Varian Associates moved its headquarters to Palo Alto, California,[35] at Stanford Industrial Park – noted as the "spawning ground of Silicon Valley" – and was the first firm to occupy a site there.[3] Several spin-off corporations developed after the death of the Varian brothers; one branch, Varian, Inc., was acquired by Agilent Technologies in May, 2010.[36]

One of Varian Associates' major contracts in the 1950s was to create a fuse for the atomic bomb. The Varian brothers had initially been supportive of military applications for the klystron and other technologies, on the grounds that they were primarily defensive weapons, but this contract was different. Although politically progressive to the point of having socialist leanings, the Varians considered themselves patriotic at heart and had no sympathy for Soviet Marxism. They also needed military contracts to survive, and relished the technical challenges of this type of work. Nonetheless, as early as 1958, Russell and Sigurd expressed regret for their involvement in developing weapons of mass destruction.[34]

Most of the founders of Varian Associates, including Russell and Sigurd, had progressive political leanings,[37] and the company "pioneered profit-sharing, stock-ownership, insurance, and retirement plans for employees long before these benefits became mandatory."[3] Nearly 50 years later, in 1997, the company was still recognized by Industry Week as one of the best-managed companies in America.[38]

In 1998, the Congressional Record noted the 50th anniversary of the founding of Varian Associates, which then employed 7,000 people at 100 plants in nine countries. It had branched out into health care systems, analytical equipment, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The company had been awarded more than 10,000 patents. California's 14th congressional district Representative Anna Eshoo called the company a "jewel in the crown of ... Silicon Valley."[38]

Russell and Sigurd's brother, Eric Varian, remained in the Halcyon area. He had a career in the central California coast as an electrical contractor,[8] and, beginning in the early 1960s, also assisted the work of his daughter, Sheila Varian, in building a horse ranch, and she became a notable breeder of Arabian horses.[39] Russell's wife Dorothy provided short-term loans that helped support the Varian Arabian horse breeding program in its early years.[40]

• Continental Electronics, a subsidiary from 1985 to 1990
• Communications & Power Industries, a 1995 spin-off, which includes the Varian brothers' original klystron business
• Intevac, a 1991 spin off
• Varian Data Machines, a former division of Varian Associates that sold minicomputers
• Varian, Inc., a scientific instrument company spun off from Varian Associates in 1999.
• Varian Medical Systems

• Johnson, Steven. "Henry Cowell, John Varian, and Halcyon". American Music (Spring, 1993): 1–27.

• White, Patricia. "Guide to the Papers of Russell and Sigurd Varian, 1836–1988" (PDF). oac.cdlib.org. Online Archive of California, Stanford University Libraries. SC 345. Retrieved 2012-09-05.
• Fisher, Lawrence M. (March 1990). "Head of Varian to Try 'More Balanced Attack'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-09-06.