W9ZUJ/3 1946 Yorktown, Virginia

Operator: E. Carl Schneider

U.S. Naval Mine Warfare School

E. Carl Schneider, of Edina, MN, former Vice President Kimberly-Clark Flax Fiber Operations, whose innovations revolutionized the decortication of flax and other fibers, died Friday, February 11, 2011. Mr. Schneider was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 29, 1920, earned a degree in electrical engineering from Marquette University and served in World War II as a Navy Mine Warfare officer. Through his hobby, amateur radio, Schneider met Louis Schweitzer owner of East Coast paper mills. Schweitzer spoke of his business problems, especially two Minnesota flax fiber mills that failed to produce the quantity or quality of linen fiber needed for his fine, highly technical papers. After Schneider told of his developmental engineering work for the Navy, Schweitzer flew to Milwaukee to personally meet Schneider and ask him to manage the unproductive Minnesota mills. In 1947 Schneider joined the Peter J. Schweitzer Company and moved to Windom, Minnesota, then called "The Flax Capital of the World." The Schweitzer Company later became a division of Kimberly-Clark from which Schneider retired in 1986. Historically, fine linen paper was made from linen fabric waste. Making linen paper from seed flax straw was a new concept. The Minnesota fiber mills, built to process hemp for World War II, used methods little improved over medieval decortication (separation of fiber from chaff) techniques. But, within two years, Schneider had the problem plants shipping 50,000 tons of quality flax tow (linen fiber) annually to Schweitzer's eastern paper mills. Schneider then turned to designing radically new decorticators and set up a machine shop at the Windom mill to build his patented creations that eventually led the world in flax fiber production. When competing crops forced flax north, escalating shipping costs, Schneider reduced his processor's size from several hundred feet to car-length, making possible mobile flax mills that won national awards for the concept of transporting a factory to its agricultural raw material source. He also created mobile mills that moved through individual fields, harvesting, decorticating and baling flax fiber on site while returning the by-product directly to the land. A multi-engine, instrument-rated pilot, Schneider logged over 10,000 air hours, flying throughout upper Midwest USA and into Canada and Mexico to oversee far-flung operations and survey increasingly distant flax-growing areas. Schneider also equipped Kimberly-Clark plants in Canada, Colombia, France and Mexico. Upon retirement he received Kimberly-Clark's esteemed Entrepreneurial Award. Schneider chaired Windom's Water and Light Commission for 35 years. An avid outdoorsman, his southwest Minnesota hunting camp was a gathering place for friends whose sons often shot their first ducks from Schneider's blinds. After retiring, he moved to Tonka Bay where he enjoyed fishing, but he returned often to his hunting shack to socialize and hunt with ex-employees and other friends. A skilled photographer, his pictures grace many Windom albums - and shortwave radio, his introduction to the world of flax and fine paper, remained a lifelong hobby. He is survived by wife Doris, daughter Heidi, son-in-law Joel Mintzer and grandsons Asher and Isaac Mintzer of Golden Valley, daughter Kate of Minneapolis, daughter Maria and Mark Righter of New York, sister Lorraine Henderson of Okauchee, Wisconsin, cousin Roy Butter of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, nieces and nephews, as well as many friends and business associates. Memorials may be made to the Marquette University School of Engineering or Ducks Unlimited.

Email from his daughter:
For many months I tried to locate Dad's old ham radio
QSL card to no avail. The Cottonwood County Citizen (my
hometown paper) even kindly put out a notice of my research.
QSL cards were personalized postcards that ham radio operators
would regularly mail by post, confirming a two-way connection
with another amateur radio operator. These cards were often
creative and very personalized, and I was sure Dad's QSL would
be especially fun.

On February 26th, 2020 (just before finalizing this book), an
unexpected email arrived from a man named Bob Winn (W5KNE),
saying that he collects QSL cards and researches the lives of
the operators. In researching this particular card he found my
Dad's obituary and then discovered my own very recent search
for Dad's (W0ABF) QSL. He said he'd chosen to research this
particular W9ZUJ card simply because it had a fun picture. As it turns
out, W9ZUJ was a callsign my family was unaware of from Dad's
time spent in the Navy. Only twenty-five years of age when  Dad
sent this card  to a ham in the Bronx, Dad's hand-drawn picture
reveals what would become a lifelong love of massive reception
towers, planes (Dad would later get his pilot's license to conduct
agricultural business in widespread rural places), and good martinis.

Through Bob Winn, Tom Roscoe (K8CX) put me in touch with Bob
Ballantine (W8SU), who held Dad's 74-year-old card in his collection
and had posted in Tom's wonderful website, www.hamgallery.com.
Go there, enter Dad's old callsign, and you'll see Bob Winn's research
on Dad. Bob Ballantine generously gifted Dad's QSL to me and wrote
"Tom and I try to keep'em out of the landfills. It is a lifelong obsession
of mine, strange but true, holding on to DNA and who they were and
what became of them!" I am so grateful for these three men.

The internet, when utilized for human connection, is indeed incredible.

--Maria Schneider, composer/conductor, Data Lords, 2020.

QSL from the estate of W2MEL
Tnx W8SU
Info courtesy of W5KNE
Email from Maria Schneider