Gilmore Schjeldahl

Gilmore Tilmen Schjeldahl (June 1, 1912 – March 10, 2002) was an American businessman and inventor in plastics, adhesives and circuitry. He was awarded 16 US patents and may be best known for inventing the plastic-lined airsickness bag. He also founded the Schjeldahl Company, which designed and built Echo I, and worked on Echo II, Project Stargazer, Stratascope II, and PAGEOS. He had five children, including Peter Schjeldahl, a notable art critic, poet, and educator. His father was a railroad worker. He grew up in Northwood, North Dakota, and did not graduate from high school, but took courses at North Dakota State College of Science and North Dakota State University before being drafted into the U.S. Army to serve during World War II. Schjeldahl served in three battles with the 84th Division, including the Battle of the Bulge, in which his actions were awarded with a Bronze Star.

Career

Herb-Shelly Schjeldahl began his career at Armour and Company, where he began working with polyethylene. Unable to get the material to seal to itself, he and his wife experimented on solutions at home, where they developed a hot knife-sealing process. as well as PAGEOS. The company also made the laminate and adhesive materials for the Polaris missile program. These environmental seals, which were called diaphragms, kept water out of the submarine until a missile was released. G. T. Schjeldahl Company products and technology using vacuum deposition and lamination were used on the Pegasus satellite program, putting the company into the vacuum deposition business. The name of the company was changed to Sheldahl, Inc. in 1974 for ease of pronunciation and spelling.

In 2000, Sheldahl, Inc. merged with International Flex Technologies, headquartered in New York. In 2004, Sheldahl was purchased by the Multek Corporation. 1970: honorary D.Sc., North Dakota State University 1988 : inductee, North Dakota Entrepreneur Hall of Fame 1991: inductee, the Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame 1993: honorary doctorate, University of North Dakota