Craig Tielens

Craig Robert Tielens of Dellwood, Minnesota passed away on Wednesday, June 2, 2021, with Susan Jensen and others by his side. Craig was the son of Melvin and Florence Tielens of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Craig graduated from Beaver Dam High School in 1972. While there he was a wrestler and ran cross country. During summers he and his friend Rodney Schultz umped youth baseball. His high school drafting teacher said of Craig, “I never taught him anything. I just stood aside and watched him.” To show his appreciation for the education he received, Craig was a yearly donor to the Beaver Dam Scholarship Foundation. He received bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin in 1976. As a sophomore, he served as a Teaching Assistant in the Electrical Engineering Department. When he was a junior, he started receiving job offers from around the country. He chose to begin his career at Johns Hopkins Research Center in Baltimore, Maryland. One of his first projects was to develop the computer interface for the cameras on the Voyager Spaceship. He received a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins while working there. At Johns Hopkins he wrote software for deep space probes, including the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Ulysses Solar Polar mission to the sun. He installed payloads at the Max Planck for Physics in Munich and on an ESA rocket in French Guiana. Always looking for new challenges, Craig left Johns Hopkins to look for a position elsewhere. Once it was known he was looking for a job, professional “headhunters” sought him out and arranged for job interviews across the country. Craig decided to take a position at Rosemount Inc. in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While there, he supervised a team of engineers as well as developing several patents. Later in his career, he started his own consulting firm, CRT Consulting, Inc. As busy as he was professionally, he still found time for a social life, and was lucky enough to meet the love of his life, Susan Jensen. Craig will be missed by Susan; his two sisters Marcia (Loren) Bretl and Barbara (Glen) Link; niece, Jessica (Joe) Link Reeve, and nephews, Brett (Hanna) Link, Ryan Bretl, Michael (Lauren) Bretl and Kyle (Krista) Bretl. Also missing him are members of the Tielens and Jensen families, as well as, close friends Rodney Schultz, Gene Olson and many other friends and former colleagues. According to Craig’s wishes there will be no services. Memorials may be given to the Beaver Dam Scholarship Foundation, P.O. Box 98, Beaver Dam, WI, 53916.