Claude F. Lindeman, Jr.

Claude F. Lindeman, Jr., of town of Barre, La Crosse County, died Saturday, June 27, at Gundersen Heath System, La Crosse, Wisconsin. He was born to Claude F., Sr., and Catherine D. (Nugent) Lindeman May 21, 1937, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He earned a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the State University of Iowa in 1960 and a MS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1968.  He served four years as an officer in the US Navy from 1960 to 1964. Before retirement, he held a Wisconsin Professional Engineering license.

He worked twice for the Trane Co., first, as a Laboratory Test Engineer in the 1960s and ‘70s, then as a heat transfer and fluid flow Development Engineer in the Brazed Aluminum manufacturing operation in the 1970s and ‘80s. Between these he worked as a thermal analyst for General Electric Aerospace Electronic Department in Utica, New York, in the 1970s. Trane sold the Brazed Aluminum Heat Exchanger manufacturing operation to Chart Industries in 1986; he worked there until retirement in 2006.

Claude met and married Carolyn (Stockbridge) Lindeman in 1973 while in New York. They have two sons, Nicholas James, a demographer, and Kurtis Philip, a physician.

He is survived by his wife, Carolyn, his sons, Nicholas and Kurtis (Hải-Đường); grandson, Simon and his brother, Robert (Mary Anne) and their families. He was preceded in death by his parents, Claude, Sr., and Catherine Lindeman; his parents-in-law, Frank and Kathryn Stockbridge; his brother, Richard Lindeman; his brother-in-law, Francis Stockbridge; and sister-in-law, Barbara Stockbridge.

Claude had a curiosity about the world around him.  First, engineering and things mechanical, then, the world of nature.  He was an avid reader.  He believed in self-teaching, learning and doing things on his own.

As Claude wished, a memorial celebration will be held, date to be determined, when such a gathering would be safe for all. There will be a private burial with family at the town of Barre Cemetery.  Assisting the family with arrangements are Schumacher-Kish Funeral and Cremation Services. In lieu of flowers or memorials, friends are asked to give donations to the Wisconsin Nature Conservancy, the Mississippi Valley Conservancy, Wisconsin Public Radio or TV, or plant a native tree.