Otto C. Schellberg

Otto “O.C.” Charles Schellberg of Georgetown, Texas, passed away in his sleep on June 8, 2020. Although Otto was born in Texas and passed out of this life in Texas, he lived more than half of his life in Mt. Vernon, Iowa with his wife of almost 54 years, Glenna Schellberg, and where they raised their children Brian (of Tomball, TX), Abbie (of Corona, CA), Daniel (of Iowa City, IA) and Katie (of Iowa City, IA).

Otto was born in Waldeck, Texas on March 19, 1941, to parents Walter and Grace, and with older sister Waldine (Ahlschlaeger, of Giddings, TX) already on board. Otto’s stories from his childhood usually included some kind of mischief, or tales of how delicious his mama’s cooking was. His self-reporting claims that he wasn’t a great student, however he went on from his high school in Houston to attend University of Houston, where he received a degree in mathematics, much to his relief! He worked hard to put himself through college, working for a butcher among other miscellaneous jobs. His work life soon improved though, when he landed a job as an engineer at NASA during the mid-1960’s. This job is significant to Otto’s family lore, because it is here that he met Glenna, who was a clerical assistant for an office full of NASA engineers (she will tell you today, rolling her eyes) whom he would go on to marry. Family lore also claims that after their second child, Abbie, was born, Glenna wanted to return to her home state of Iowa to raise their family. Otto obliged, finding a job as an engineer with Iowa Electric (later Alliant Energy) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he remained, working hard and making his coworkers laugh, until his retirement in 1998. Not one to remain idle, Otto proceeded to get another full-time job at Lloyd Table Company in Lisbon, Iowa, where he worked quality control and customer service, and continued his mission to make people laugh.

In addition to his wife and their 4 children, Otto is also survived by 5 grandchildren, his sister, numerous nieces, nephews, and grandnieces and nephews, and many friends who, like me, will miss him greatly, and count themselves blessed to have been in this life during the same time as this sweet, kind, funny, joyous, wisecracking, loving man. We will miss you Dad.

A Graveside Service will be held at 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, June 17, 2020 at Waldeck Cemetery in Waldeck, Texas.