Back in 1985, while researching my first book, Invisible Frontiers, I had a lunchtime appointment with Robert Swanson, then president and CEO of Genentech. While en route to the interview, I found myself snarled in one of those now-familiar traffic jams on southbound U.S. 101-traffic jams created in part by the biotech revolution Swanson helped launch. I arrived an hour and a half late, in an advanced state of mortification, but Swanson betrayed not the slightest irritation. We repaired to the cafeteria, where he recalled the early days at Genentech with passion and humor.

The passionate and patient aspects of this man came to mind with the tragic news last December that Swanson, who founded Genentech in 1976 with biologist Herbert Boyer, had died of a brain tumor just a few days after his 52nd birthday. There have been generous and entirely fitting testimonials to Swanson's role as father of the biotechnology industry, but when I think back to the fitful start of our interview, I'm struck by a personality trait of Swanson's that might well serve as a philosophical statement about innovation. I'm sure he was more peeved than he let on, but patience was the better part of valor. That is what I remember most about Swanson: a strategic patience.