Obituary: Joseph Shuster, chemical engineer, businessman, advocated for clean energy

Even in retirement, Joseph M. Shuster remained devoted to a singular mission: clean energy.

The New Prague resident, who had a successful business career in Minnesota that spanned decades, felt so strongly about the need to use cleaner, less-harmful energy sources that he wrote a book about it in his 70s. He gave lectures across the country to spread his message about the urgency to find alternatives to fossil fuels in order to preserve the planet for future generations.

In one memorable exchange about a decade ago, during a local speech by the president of Shell Oil Co. about his desire to drill in other parts of the U.S., Shuster asked a lot of pointed questions. A Shell executive asked Shuster who he represented. "I represent my grandchildren," he said, in a recounting to the Star Tribune in 2008. "And this is what I'm doing for the rest of my life."

Shuster, a chemical engineer and entrepreneur who helped start about 10 Minnesota companies, including Minnesota Valley Engineering (now part of Chart Industries), died on March 6 after battling lymphoma. He was 83.

"I think his commitment to fix up the planet added at least five years to his life," said Tom Blees, a close friend and president of the nonprofit Science Council for Global Initiatives. "He said that himself."

Shuster was a board member of the science council, one of several boards that he served on throughout his life.

Born on a farm near Hibbing, Minn., Shuster and his family moved to Chicago when he was a boy. He grew up poor in the public housing projects.

"It was a pretty modest upbringing," said his daughter, Susan King, of New Prague. "It was really tough for him."

But he credited two major influences in motivating him to succeed — an elementary school teacher and the caddie master at the Sunset Ridge Country Club, where he worked. It was a special scholarship program for caddies called the Evans Scholars that enabled Shuster to attend the University of Minnesota. He graduated in the mid-1950s with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering.

In 1963, he co-founded Minnesota Valley Engineering in New Prague with his father-in-law, tinkering in a garage to build tanks that could hold liquefied gases and keep other products ultracold.

"The first one was just a disaster," she said. "Then they found the magic. … They took the industry by storm. They pioneered all sorts of innovations."

When the company was bought by Beatrice Foods, Shuster stayed on with it for eight years. The company is now part of Chart Industries.

In 1984, he started another company in Bloomington called Teltech Resource Network Corp., which in the '90s landed on Inc. Magazine's list of the nation's 500 fastest-growing private companies. The firm provided technical reports and expertise for corporate and government clients such as Honeywell and Medtronic. It was later bought by Sopheon.

He also co-founded RTI, a recycler of used cooked oil.

In 2008, he wrote the book, "Beyond Fossil Fools: The Roadmap to Energy Independence by 2040," a tutorial on energy issues and alternative sources. He was particularly passionate about the opportunities in using next-generation nuclear power and other renewable resources such as wind and solar energy. The audience for the book was not scientists but to help average people better understand the pros and cons of various energy sources, said King.

In addition to King, survivors include his wife, Patricia (Patsy) of New Prague; children Pete Shuster of Northfield, Siri Lehmann of Lakeville, Pauline Jennings of Northfield, Sam Shuster of Edina, and 11 grandchildren.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. April 9 at St. Wenceslaus Church, 215 Main St. E., New Prague.

Kavita Kumar • 612-673-4113