Gunnar Hurtig III

1939 - 2016

Gunnar Hurtig,III
Jun. 21, 1939 - Nov. 29,2016
Palm Desert
Gunnar Hurtig, III died peacefully at his home in Palm Desert on November 29, 2016. He was 77. Gunnar was born in St. Louis, MO to Dorothy and Gunnar Hurtig, Jr.
Gunnar's entrepreneurial nature was evident early in his life. After graduating from Cornell University with a BEE and MS in Electrical Engineering, he started and sold two high-technology companies as well as serving as a major contractor and consultant to the National Security Agency.
After the sale of his second company, he spent two years at Stanford University earning an MBA specializing in Finance. Upon graduation, he worked for Fairchild Semiconductor and was an expatriate in Tokyo Japan for two years.
After Fairchild, and a successful tenure at Hitachi America, Ltd., Gunnar then joined the venture capital firm of Weiss, Peck and Greer as a General Partner responsible for high-technology start-ups.
During his twenty-three years in venture capital, Gunnar sat on the Board of Directors of more than thirty companies and served as Interim CEO and Director of several Silicon Valley companies.
In 1993, Gunnar married Teresa Yule, with whom he enjoyed 23 years together with their dog, cats and tortoise. They loved traveling and visited many countires in Europe and the Far East.
Gunnar was an avid sailor, and after spending five months sailing his 42-foot sailboat from San Francisco to Mexico with Teresa and his son, Dana, he decided to fulfill two life-long ambitions – teaching at the Graduate School level, and earning a PhD in Astrophysics and Radio Astronomy.
Gunnar and Teresa moved to the Palm Springs area in 2006 where he began teaching at University of California Riverside Graduate School of Business and began his PhD studies in Astrophysics at James Cook University. In 2013 he was appointed Director of New Ventures for UC Riverside in addition to his teaching duties.
Gunnar is survived by his wife, Teresa, his son, Dana and his daughter, Karen. At Gunnar's request, no services will be held.


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