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Charles A. 'Chuck' Forsberg Portland, OR QCWA # 26075 |
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Charles Alton "Chuck" Forsberg
Chuck Forsberg died on September 24, 2015, in Portland, Oregon. He was 71.
Chuck was a man of many accomplishments. He exhibited a multi-faceted persona that friends, family, loved ones and even Chuck would acknowledge, was at times quirky and contradictory.
Chuck Forsberg was:
An intellectual genius, who always seeded his ideas, accomplishments and creations with a stiff measure of pragmatic common sense.
A technical engineer who was as comfortable writing the English language as he was writing computer code or designing electronic circuits.
Someone who couldn't remember people's names or faces, but retained the complex details of electronic circuits he had designed 40 years earlier.
That rare engineer who combined expertise and proficiency in both software and hardware engineering.
A self-taught and self-described "know-it-all" on nutrition and diet, while conceding being as much as 200 pounds overweight.
A man with many passions, Chuck was a strong member of a great family, a true friend to many and a wonderful loving husband. Quite simply, Chuck was a caring, nice man who made lives better for those around him.
Like most of us, Chuck's life could be mapped out by eras, with their own benchmarks. There were the times of being overweight or thinner, being single or married, the 20 years living on a houseboat, the 20 years of living at Caddy Shack, before and after heart surgery, and time flying as a private aircraft pilot followed by being grounded for health reasons.
Charles Alton Forsberg was born May 6, 1944 in Wilmette, Illinois. He was the third child of Margery and Charles Lundberg. His older sisters were Annie and Susie. Chuck was only two or three when his father died. Chuck shared both his biological father's physical appearance and aptitude for electrical engineering.
In 1949, Chuck's mother, Margery, married Delbert Forsberg. Delbert adopted the entire family, providing Chuck with his Forsberg last name.
Delbert and Margery Forsberg had three children together: Christie, Connie, and Adele. The Forsbergs and their six children lived in Madison, Wisconsin. Del Forsberg was a successful businessman, owning and operating Forsberg Paper Box Company. Margery managed the busy household.
Chuck was a precocious, even mischievous, little boy. He shared the benefits of living in a lovely home and prosperous community. But many of his grade school teachers just didn't understand this incredibly bright but complex kid. His academic performance ranged from mixed to disappointing. Academic evaluations labeled him a chronic underperformer.
In those early years he was known as Chucky, a moniker he disliked. Then at 12 years old, he announced to his friends that they should call him either Chuck, Charlie, or Charles. He was asserting himself, a sign of maturing and growing up.
Chuck's parents knew him far better than his teachers. Together with him, they made a life-changing decision. They enrolled him in the Alton, Illinois Western Military Academy. The order, discipline, atmosphere and academic rigor at the academy transformed him. After four years of high school in an extremely competitive environment, he finished second in his graduating class. Western Military Academy was an intense formative experience for Chuck. For the rest of his life he told stories about the impact these years had on him.
Chuck said that he always wanted a career in electronics, and he never considered any other profession. He started college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, achieving an excellent academic record in a demanding program. After two years at Rensselaer, he transferred to the University of Wisconsin, graduating in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering. He continued at the University of Wisconsin, earning a Master's degree in electrical engineering.
Chuck married Diane Gilles while he was still a student in the Master's program. They had no children and the marriage ended in divorce four years later.
In 1968 he had attractive professional engineering job offers from three solid companies. He accepted the invitation from Tektronix, in Beaverton, Oregon. It was a perfect match. It was a company and a position that allowed him to thrive. He had good managers who knew how to use his talents. Yes, Chuck was a talented engineer, but he was also naturally creative, providing Tek with inspired design and forward-thinking innovations.
The company recognized his unique talent and special set of skills. Chuck was quickly given a lot of responsibility, culminating in his assignment as the project engineer for the Tektronix 4014 computer graphics terminal project, a hugely successful product for the company.
In 1974, Chuck was recruited by Sidereal Corporation, a small startup computer communications company. When he started, Chuck did Sidereal's engineering work on the dining room table of his houseboat. He was both the hardware and software engineer for Sidereal's first project, the Micronet.
In the early 1980s, when Chuck was designing specialized word processing hardware at a company called CDI, he made computer programming history. In his free time he wrote a file transfer protocol software that would change his career, and propel him into an elite group of computer software pioneers.
Initially he released YModem, a program that improved on another programmer's work called XModem. Chuck's notoriety grew and a large timeshare company, needing an even better data communications program, contracted with Chuck to write an improved version.
The result was ZModem. ZModem was good, really good, and Chuck became more prominent in the industry. At the time, noted PC Magazine columnist John Dvorak said about Chuck's work: "Here's the simple fact. Zmodem is the state of the art protocol for microcomputers. "It's fast and bullet-proof."
In 1984 Chuck founded Omen Technology to market his software. Again, operating out of his houseboat home, he made Omen Technology successful. At one point he had ten telephone lines running into his house to accommodate product downloads and customer service.
In 1995 Chuck moved out of his home of 20 years. From his houseboat on Sauvie Island, he moved to a modest house he called Caddy Shack, located on a magnificent five acres near Hillsboro. He continued to successfully operate Omen Technology from Caddy Shack for several more years, until he retired.
Having his own company allowed Chuck to be Chuck. He got up when he felt like it (usually in the afternoon), he worked when he felt like it, and wrote the software he wanted to write. He was a guru in the fullest sense of the word. A quote in a trade magazine summed it up, "Many people study and work at learning computers and engineering. Chuck Forsberg just knows."
Chuck loved to fly. In 1994 he obtained his private pilot license and bought his own Cessna 182 aircraft. He quickly earned the challenging instrument flight rating. Much of his social life centered around aviation clubs, including Sunday brunches at the Flying M Ranch.
Heart surgery in 2002, and a resulting failed flight physical, grounded Chuck. Then an improved physical exam in 2004 gave him a one-year reinstatement and he was back in the air. He was bitterly disappointed in 2005 when poor health grounded him for good. While never piloting an aircraft again, Captain Chuck still kept his aircraft in flying condition, and didn't sell it until 2012.
Chuck was a ham radio operator for about 50 years. His FCC designated call sign was WA7KGX. He bought the best equipment, and true to form on all things electronic and technical, he just knew stuff. In his later years, ham radio became particularly important to him because it was an enjoyable activity that he could physically handle. He was an active member of two ham radio clubs.
Back in 1977 at Sidereal, Chuck had met Betty Miles. At that time she was an office temporary for the company. Some 28 years later in May 2005, when both of their lives had changed dramatically, Chuck and Betty Miles Loveness became a couple, and in November 2006 they were married.
Here are some things Betty shared.
We fell in love very quickly, and had an intense, deeply satisfying, compatible relationship. We didn't have to talk about our relationship very much, because it was easy. I let Chuck be Chuck, and he let me be me. For the big stuff, the important stuff, he was a wonderful husband. He never was controlling, critical, or demanding. He was a prince.
I do have to say that for the fluff-stuff, romantic gestures, he was completely clueless. But it didn't matter. We both regretted not getting together in the 1970s, saying to each other, "This is who I should have been with the whole time."
Chuck and Betty made the most of the years 2006 through 2009, going on five major foreign trips. They spent time in England, Italy, and Spain, and took several cruises in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. Chuck was a great traveler. He remembered an incredible amount of detail and took thousands of pictures.