But for much of their lives, they made an annual pilgrimage overseas, booking the Royal Suite at Claridge’s, one of London’s more storied (and posh) hotels.
This week a BBC documentary featured the 40-year span of the Melchors’ visits to London, sparking fascination in the UK with a pair whose partnership spanned multiple eras of Silicon Valley growth and innovation.
But you can read about the Melchors’ 66-year love affair in the Town Crier here. As reporter Mary Beth Hislop wrote, their romance began in South Bend, Indiana, where a 17-year-old Navy officer-in-training stopped by a tea dance at the USO and met an older woman – 21-year-old Norma.
“I was looking for someone who was intelligent and wasn’t a pushover,” Norma said.
Jack reported that they molded together through decades of work in nursing, engineering and venture capital, volunteer service and philanthropy.
“I’d say we’re as much in love as the day we were married,” he told Hislop.
The pair were honored as the Town Crier’s 2007 “Los Altans of the Year.”
Norma died in February 2012.
