Walter Grengg

Madison - Walter Grengg passed away on January 7, 2020. Born in 1925, in Chicago, IL, he and his immigrant parents lived behind their "Mom & Pop" grocery store. Walter graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1946, majoring in chemical engineering. He also earned a Master's degree in Physics in 1963 from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Walter was a consulting engineer and inventor holding 12 patents, including a shock-absorbent relay switch that was used in the Lunar Excursion Module that landed on the Moon in 1969.

Initially, Walter worked for the 3M Corporation before starting a TV tube production company, GAVCO Laboratories. After a stint in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he married Dolores Arnold in 1955 and worked for the Elgin Watch Company. Walter moved to Madison, WI in 1961 for graduate school and stayed. During his 40-year consulting career with Walter Grengg & Associates, he problem solved for companies in many different states and in China in 1987.

Walter was politically active, and his concern for World Peace led him to be an active member of the United Nations Association, Veterans for Peace, and Scientists for Global Responsibility. Walter was a lifelong artist who studied watercolor and oil painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. Walter also was an outdoor enthusiast - skier, ski instructor, skater, canoeist, bicyclist (crossing Europe in the early 1950s), and windsurfer.

Walter is survived by his daughters, Linda Grengg Damashek and Heidi Grengg; and his grandchildren, Elliot and Aaron Damashek and Sarah Grengg Wilson.

A memorial service will be held at FIRST UNITARIAN SOCIETY MEETING HOUSE, in the Gaebler Room, 900 University Bay Drive, Madison, on Saturday, January 18, 2020, at noon.

Cress Funeral & Cremation Services
3610 Speedway Road
(608) 238-3434