CAMDEN — C. Richard (“Dick”) Soderberg, an accomplished engineer and businessman, a lifelong sailor and craftsman, and a devoted husband and father, died on November 29 in Camden, Maine. He was 95 and had moved last spring from his Camden home to Quarry Hill.

He died in Sussman House due to complications from heart failure.

Carl Richard Soderberg, Jr., was born on January 2,1923, to Stina Lofstedt and Carl Richard Soderberg, Sr., in Boston, Massachusetts.

Both of his parents were of Swedish descent. His mother was born just after her parents emigrated to the United States from southern Sweden. His father emigrated to the United States from Ulvon, Sweden, an island in the northern Baltic, after receiving a Scandinavian American Foundation scholarship to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he went on, later in his career, to be Dean of Engineering.

Dick Soderberg, Jr., spent his earliest years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and began school in Vasteras, Sweden, where his father had returned for a two-year job assignment. When the family moved back to the States they lived in Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

Dick Soderberg graduated from the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire in 1940 and attended MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he graduated in 1944 with a BS in Aeronautical Engineering as part of the Navy V-12 Program. From 1944 through 1946 Lieutenant (j.g.) Soderberg was stationed at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in the Aircraft Overhaul Division.

He returned to MIT after the Navy and received a MS in Mechanical Engineering in 1947. After graduation he worked briefly at Standard Oil Development Company and then for several years at Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Corporation in East Hartford, Connecticut.  

In 1950 he married Nancy Traill, of Spencer, Massachusetts, whom he had met while he worked at Pratt and Whitney. Together they had five children.

Dick Soderberg’s professional career included work at several large and medium-sized companies in technical, engineering-intensive industries. The businesses ranged from jet engines to petrochemical plant design – from filtration technology to the manufacture of large pressure vessels. Early technical roles evolved to broader management responsibilities later in his career.

His work took the family to many places, including Connecticut, Texas, Illinois, and Minnesota in the US. He ended his professional career leading a subsidiary of Combustion Engineering in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he worked for seven years.

Four constants defined his life wherever he lived. At his core he was a true engineer. He liked to fix things, to make them work, to make them better. Whether it was cars, aging furniture, tree houses or real houses, he always had projects underway and more projects planned for the future.

Another love was sailing — or, more precisely, sailboats. He enjoyed the water and the challenge of navigating and working the wind. But truth be told, he was often just as happy to be working on the boat as he was sailing it. His beloved sailboat Spirit (sailed over the years from Long Island Sound to Nantucket and Maine, through the Erie Canal to Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, and then back to Maine) offered a never-ending series of projects, challenges, and cruises to plan and enjoy.

Dogs — from collies to poodles—were also a constant in Dick’s life. They were great companions and a real source of comfort in his later years.

But the true constant of his life was Nancy, his wife of 68 years. She managed the family and their connections to community over their many moves. She was his unfailingly positive mate on their many sailing adventures and in all aspects of their life together. They were particularly happy after Dick’s retirement in 1988 to live (and sail) in South Brooksville, Maine and then in Camden following their move there in 2003.

His survivors include five children: Lisa Soderberg (Richard Brown) of Doylestown, Pennsylvania; Carl R. Soderberg of Simsbury, Connecticut; Leif G. Soderberg (Jill) of Lake Forest, Illinois; Inga Soderberg-King (Jeff) of Gloucester, Massachusetts; Erik T. Soderberg of Bedford, New York; ten grandchildren and two great-granddaughters.

He was predeceased by his wife; by his sister, Barbro Dirke; and by his brother, Lars O. Soderberg.

The family is grateful to the cadre of loving caregivers who attended Dick and Nancy in their final years.

A memorial service is planned for March 16, at 11 a.m., at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church in Camden with the Rev. Lisa Smith-Frye officiating.

If desired, memorial gifts may be made in his memory to the Camden Area District Nursing Association, P.O. Box 547, Camden, ME 04843, or to the Sussman House, c/o Pen Bay Healthcare Foundation, 22 White Street, Rockland, ME 04841.

Condolences may be shared with the family at www.longfuneralhomecamden.com.