Obituary of Milton Hallberg

Milton Charles Hallberg, age 76, died on November 15, 2012. He was born on April 14, 1936 in Monmouth, IL. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Pauline (Boyer) Hallberg of State College, PA. Also surviving are his son, Brian Hallberg, grandson, Brandon Hallberg, and granddaughter, Gretchen Hallberg all of Port Matilda, PA; sisters: Vivian George of Goshen, IN, Ruth Baylor of Bettendorf, IA, and Jeanette Hallberg of Moline, IL; and a brother, Leon Hallberg of Bettendorf, IA. He was preceded in death by his father, John Harold Hallberg; his mother, Hilma Otelia (Swanson) Hallberg; a sister, Joyce Johnson of Monmouth, IL; a sister Shirley Cleland of San Diego, CA; and daughter-in-law Nancy (Welsh) Hallberg of Port Matilda, PA. Milton Hallberg received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Illinois and his Ph.D. degree from Iowa State University. He accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics at Penn State University in 1965 and retired from that Department in 1998 as Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics. While at Penn State, he taught courses in quantitative methods for agricultural economists and courses in the general area of agricultural policy. His research efforts were also in these general areas. During his tenure at Penn State he advised 18 Masters degree candidates and 17 Ph.D. degree candidates. He also served as interim Head of the Department on two separate occasions. Recognition of Milton Hallberg's contributions to the Agricultural Economics discipline led to invitations to serve as a visiting scholar at other institutions in the United States and elsewhere. In 1972-73, he served as visiting Economist with the Economic Research Service of USDA in Washington D.C. In 1976, he served as Visiting Professor of Agricultural Economics at Oklahoma State University. In 1984 and again in 1995 he served as Thurburn Visiting Fellow at the University of Sydney in Australia. In 1984 he also served as Visiting Research Professor at The Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany. In 1990 he served as Visiting Professor of Agricultural Economics at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has also lectured at Universities and research institutes in Santurce, Puerto Rico; Seoul, Korea; Uppsala and Stockholm, Sweden; Ås, Norway; Castelar, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Montevideo, Uruguay; and Warsaw, Poland. He was always most pleased that his wife, Polly, could accompany him on all of these visits, except to South America, organizing social discussions with various local groups and planning a variety of professional and sightseeing trips. Prior to beginning his college career, Milton Hallberg was employed as a depot agent for the CB&Q railroad in Illinois which led him to a somewhat unique interest in his retirement years - creating a database of all railroads ever chartered in the U.S. and Canada - which he made available free to all interested railroad fans via the Internet. He was also an avid golfer, and an avid reader. He enjoyed organizing and updating his family tree which at the time of his death contained over 1,000 entries and traced some of his Swedish heritage back to 1709. He enjoyed putting together reference pamphlets on various subjects related to his post-retirement reading and/or research - e.g., a picture book of European cathedrals he and Polly visited, a summary of the characteristics of major religions, etc. He particularly enjoyed listening to and learning about classical music. He loved his family and was always elevated in spirit when his grandchildren came to visit. In addition to his other interests during retirement, he was actively involved in studying U.S. agricultural history. To facilitate this study, he constructed a long-term database of the U.S. agricultural sector over the last two centuries and in cooperation with his grandson, wrote a rather extensive historical timeline of various U.S. events since the early 1700s. Visitation will be 6-8 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2012, at Koch Funeral Home, 2401 South Atherton Street, State College. A memorial service will be held on Friday, November 30, 2012, at 11 am at the funeral home. A private burial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Centre Volunteers in Medicine, 2520 Green Tech Drive, Suite D, State College, PA 16803, or Penn State THON, 210 Hetzel Union Building, University Park, PA 16802. Online condolences may be made at www.kochfuneralhome.com.