Walter W. Linstromberg

LINSTROMBERG, Walter W., professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, died in Virginia, Minnesota at the age of 99. Dr. Linstromberg moved to the Omaha area in 1955 after receiving his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Missouri at Columbia. He taught organic chemistry at the University of Nebraska at Omaha from 1955 until his retirement in 1978. Over the course of his career, he taught thousands of students and was known for injecting his lectures with humor and stories of real-life encounters with science. He expanded his reach to countless more students through the six editions of his popular textbook, “Organic Chemistry – A Brief Course.” Originally published in 1966, the text has been distributed worldwide in five languages. In retirement, Dr. Linstromberg continued his interest in education in chemistry and, in 2008, he and his family endowed the Walter W. and Mittie W. Linstromberg Scholarship in Chemistry through the University of Nebraska Foundation. Walter William Linstromberg was a native of Beaufort, Missouri and a 1937 graduate of the University of Missouri at Columbia. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, he worked as an analytical chemist for Hercules Powder Company in Wilmington, Delaware. He was later sent to Chattanooga, Tennessee to start up a Volunteer Ordinance Works, making TNT for the war effort. During World War II, Dr. Linstromberg served as a commissioned officer in the Navy. He was an Armed Guard Commander on a cargo ship in the north Atlantic, and later, in the southwest Pacific, transporting army vehicles, ammunition, and medical supplies to the troops. His ship delivered supplies to Normandy two days after D-Day. Survivors include his wife of 68 years, Mittie Wheeler Linstromberg; son John Linstromberg, of Virginia, Minnesota, and daughter Kathryn Greenough, of Columbia, Maryland; two brothers; three grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. SERVICES Saturday, January 7, 2012 at 11am at the West Center Chapel. Private interment. Memorials to Walter W. and Mittie W. Linstromberg Scholarship in chemistry c/o University of Nebraska Foundation.

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