Robert Hillberg

Robert Hillberg (August 27, 1917 – August 12, 2012) was a firearm designer and the head of Research & Development at the High Standard Manufacturing Company. His designs included the folding shotgun stock, the Whitney Wolverine lightweight pistol, Wildey .45 gas-operated pistol, COP .357 Derringer pistol, and M60 machine gun.[4] Hillberg developed a variety of insurgency weapons, primarily multiple barrel shotguns, which could be covertly distributed to partisan forces fighting in the United States' national interests.[5] Gun Digest editors have described Hillberg as a "national treasure."[4]

Robert Hillberg
Born(1917-08-27)August 27, 1917[1]
Anamosa, Iowa, United States[2]
DiedAugust 12, 2012(2012-08-12) (aged 94)[3]
Branford, Connecticut, United States
Occupation(s)firearm designer, deputy sheriff, expert witness[2]

History

Born in Anamosa, Iowa on August 27, 1917, as a boy Robert L. Hillberg accompanied his father, Carl Walter Hillberg,[1] on hunting trips in Minnesota and South Dakota. Although Hillberg did attend the University of Minnesota for several years, he was not formally trained in firearms design.[6] He demonstrated a working prototype .357 Magnum submachine gun of his own design to Colt Firearms located in Hartford, Connecticut in 1938. Colt did not buy the gun, but they did offer Hillberg a job. In 1940 Hillberg accepted employment in the engineering department of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, in East Hartford, where he designed engine components.[2]

Hillberg moved to Burlington, Vermont in 1942 to work as a project engineer for Bell Aircraft's ordinance division. In addition to aircraft projects (including the B-17) Hillberg completed a prototype .30 caliber carbine at Bell, which had been started at Pratt & Whitney. After the war, in 1947, he was placed in charge of Republic Aviation's armament division, in Farmingdale, New York. He worked on adapting weapons designed for use on the ground to aircraft, such as the F-84 Thunderjet as well as F-91 prototypes, with all the challenges inherent in that problem. While at Republic Hillberg designed several automatic pistols, including for the first time in the gun industry solving the problem of having interchangeable barrels for multiple calibers in the same gun.[2][6]

Hillberg left the aircraft industry in 1951, and went to work for High Standard Manufacturing Company in Hamden, Connecticut, as head of research and development. In addition to High Standard pistols, Hillberg worked on new designs for the J. C. Higgins brand of guns for Sears, Roebuck & Company. High Standard manufactured some military weapons. Hillberg designed a tank version of the Browning .30 caliber machine gun for the Springfield Armory and the Detroit Tank Arsenal. This gun was later put into production as the M37 machine gun.[2][6]

Moving on from High Standard, Hillberg had the opportunity to develop his idea for a futuristic .22LR sporting pistol design when in 1954 he became the co-founder of Whitney Firearms in North Haven, Connecticut, with Howard "Howie" Johnson (of the Bellmore Johnson Tool Company in Hamden).[6][7] Production of the Whitney Wolverine commenced in 1954, but poor marketing lead to the demise of Whitney Firearms in mid-1957. From that time on, until 1980, Hillberg was the Chief Engineer for Bellmore Johnson Tool Company. He also provided firearms consulting and design services from his office in Cheshire, Connecticut. From 1980 to 2012, he was as an independent expert witness in court cases relating to firearms.[2]

In the late 1980s, Hillberg and Robert Schuets, owner of Olympic Arms Inc., worked together to bring the Whitney Wolverine back to the market. Olympic Arms introduced a polymer-framed version of Hillberg's pistol in 2004, and he received one of the first production models.[8]

At the time of his death, Hillberg was a retired deputy sheriff and was a member of several police organizations. After a lifetime designing firearms from machine guns to pistols, shotguns and rifles, when asked what was his proudest accomplishment, Hillberg replied “The Whitney pistol.”[2]

Guns

Partial list of patents

Hillberg holds numerous patents for firearms, including:

References
  1. Robert L. Hillberg Obituary in The American-Republican Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, August 16, 2012
  2. Card, James (4 September 2012). "Robert Hillberg, 1917-2012". Gun Digest. F+W Media. Retrieved 19 June 2014. History will surely remember Robert L. Hillberg as one of the foremost firearms designers of the 20th century.
  3. Robert L. Hillberg Obituary in The New Haven Register, legacy.com, August 16, 2012
  4. Shideler, Dan (2010). Gun Digest 2011. Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-4402-1337-3. Robert L. Hillberg... is a national treasure, being one of the few surviving masters of post-WWII American firearms design
  5. Houze, Herb (2011). Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Iola, Wisconsin: Gun Digest Books. pp. 309–312. ISBN 1-4402-2725-X.
  6. "The Oldest Name in Guns Comes Back" (PDF). Guns Magazine: 24–27, 66–69. August 1956.
  7. J.B. Wood (29 July 2013). "Writer Gets His Whitney Wolverine After Long Wait For Unusual .22". GunMag. Second Amendment Foundation. Retrieved 21 June 2014. The Whitney name was used because the company was located near the old Eli Whitney factory site.
  8. B. Gil Horman (20 June 2014). "Olympic Arms Whitney Wolverine .22 LR Pistol". American Rifleman. National Rifle Association. Retrieved 21 June 2014. This polymer revival of R. Hillberg's 1950s rimfire 'ray gun' is sleek, light and fun to shoot.
  9. Bodinson, Holt (July 2009). "Space gun Redux: return of the Whitney Wolverine". Guns Magazine. Archived from the original on July 11, 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
  • Taglienti, Antonio J (2008). The Whitney Wolverine .22 Caliber Semi-Automatic Pistol. Andrew Mowbray Publishers, Inc. p. 160. ISBN 978-1-931464-35-2.
  • Smith, Walter Harold Black (1968). The W.H.B. Smith Classic Book of Pistols. Stackpole Books. p. 791.
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