EDWARD C. VANDENBURGH III 1915 - 2003

KNOWLES, VANDENBURGH, TUFTY, MUELLER

Posted By: Mary Durr (email)
Date: 9/23/2003 at 14:23:19

Edward C. Vandenburgh III

Telegraph Herald - Tuesday, August 12, 2003

Mr. Edward C. Vandenburgh III, 87, a retired patent and trademark lawyer, died Saturday, Aug. 9, 2003, at home in Dubuque.

Burial will be in the family plot in Sterling, Ill. The Leonard Funeral Home & Crematory, 2595 Rockdale Road, Dubuque, is in charge of arrangements.

Edward C. Vandenburgh was born in Chicago, on Sept. 27, 1915, son of Edward C., Jr. and Charlotte (Knowles) Vandenburgh.

He received a degree in engineering from Iowa State University, Ames, in 1937, and a law degree from Duke University in 1940.

He practiced law in Sioux City, Iowa, and then was a supervising engineer for the government in connection with defense plant construction in Kansas City, Mo.

During World War II, he was a staff sergeant with a Railway Operating Battalion in Europe. After receiving his Army discharge in 1946, he entered the practice of patent and trademark law in Chicago. In 1947, he obtained a master's degree in patent law from John Marshall Law School. He remained in the Chicago area until his retirement in 1981, at which time he moved to rural Jo Daviess County, Ill., and subsequently to Dubuque.

In addition to his law practice in the Chicago area from 1946 to 1981, Mr. Vandenburgh was an instructor and adjunct professor at John Marshall Law School, Chicago. His book, Trademark Law & Procedure, was acclaimed by those in the patent and trademark law field. He was the author of portions of Encyclopedia of Patent Practice and Invention Management and numerous articles in periodical legal publications.

During retirement, time was spent in tracing and recording data on his forebearers. His father's parentage was traced to a Claes van den Bergh living in the mid-1640s in the area of what now is Albany, N.Y. It was known that Claes came from Breucklen, Netherlands, but no date for the arrival in America was ascertained. His mother was a descendant of Richard Knowles, who came from England and first is referred to in the records of the Plymouth Colony in 1637/8.

Mr. Vandenburgh was the recipient of the 1978 Jefferson Medal for an outstanding contribution to the field of patent, copyright and trademark law. Other recipients of which have included inventors, authors, educators and federal court judges. In 1971, he was awarded John Marshall Law School's Distinguished Alumnus Citation of Merit. In 1976-77, he was the head of the American Bar Association's Section of Intellectual Property Law. For many years, his biography appeared in Who's Who in America and in Who's Who In The World.

Surviving are his children, Edward C. Vandenburgh IV, of Browns Lake, S.D., Lael Vandenburgh, of Lake Geneva, Wis., Jean Tufty, of Sioux City, Anne Vandenburgh, of Madison, Wis., Lynn Vandenburgh Mueller, of Stillwater, Minn., and Derek Vandenburgh, of Mahtomedi, Minn.; six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren; and a brother, Garret Vandenburgh, of Kenosha, Wis.