THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 20, 1994 TAG: 9410200314
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Rudolph Waldemar Chelborg, 87, died peacefully on Oct. 7, 1994.
Beloved husband of the late Mary Ann Smith Chelborg, he was born of Swedish parentage on Long Island, N.Y. He would become a self-made man.
Mr. Chelborg earned an AE degree in Electrical Engineering from Newark Tech in 1930. He then enrolled in the Newark College of Engineering, earning a BS degree in Electrical Engineering. He attended Columbia University, where he worked on his MS in Industrial Engineering. Finally, he entered the New York University Graduate School of Business Administration, completing the prerequisite courses in Management and Marketing. All these degrees were earned while attending evening classes. In later years he in turn taught calculus at N.Y.U. in the evenings.
His employment history included Public Service, Newark, N.J.; Bell Labs, N.Y.C. (Technical Staff); R.C.A., N.J.; and Robeson Eng. Co. as Chief Engineer. He was employed by Linde Products Division of Union Carbide Corporation from 1936 until his retirement in 1968.
At Union Carbide he advanced from Draftsman to Apparatus Sales Manager and Correspondent in Sales, Gas Apparatus Administration, where he initiated all new production and approved all product changes from his office in the old New York City headquarters.
Mr. Chelborg, always progressive, especially in conservation of resources, was a designer and inventor. During World War II, he wished to join the service, but was considered too valuable to the war effort due to his patented inventions.
They included a machine for cutting tapered ingots, a mechanized hand cutting blow pipe, a tool guiding apparatus and an apparatus for conditioning metal bodies. He also appeared in full-page ads for Linde Air Products.
Mr. and Mrs. Chelborg met and courted at the beachfront in 1939. Mrs. Chelborg was formerly of Kempsville.
Mr. Chelborg was a member of the NJIT Alumni Association and a long-standing member of the Maplewood Country Club and the International Association of the Lions Clubs in Maplewood, N.J., where he and his family resided until his retirement.
Mr. Chelborg was an accomplished equestrian, skier, ice skater, mechanic and tournament winning golfer. He was a professional singer in his youth with Frank Helwig's band, where he also played the ukulele and harmonica.
He was an accomplished gardener, working on his own variety of azaleas and past member of the Men's Garden Club of Tidewater. He was also a member of the American Management Association and worked as a volunteer on Republican campaigns.
He leaves his children, Suzanne Phillips Chelborg Beauchamp of Dallas, Cheryl Linde Chelborg Boydon of Livermore, Calif., Randolph Leighton Chelborg of Richmond, Marilyn Courtney Chelborg Schaum and her husband, Jerome Benton Schaum, of Virginia Beach, and six grandchildren, including Natalie Danielle Rock and Charles (Bobby) Randolph Rock, also of Virginia Beach.
In lieu of flowers, please be kind enough to make a donation to the Virginia Beach General Hospital Auxiliary in honor of Mary Chelborg, a lifetime auxiliary member in whose memory a nursing scholarship was instituted.
There will be no funeral as Mr. Chelborg made a gift of his remains to the State Anatomical Division.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, in Virginia Beach Methodist Church at 19th St. and Pacific Ave. in Virginia Beach. ILLUSTRATION: Personal Photo
KEYWORDS: DEATH OBITUARY
by CNB