John Walberg
John Wallberg is a 1992 graduate of Lincoln High School, and the son of John and Marilyn Wallberg. Their family which including 3 older siblings moved to Thief River in 1974 when John’s dad took the 8th grade math teacher position at Franklin Middle School.
Math was a part of John’s life growing up. John’s dad was instrumental in getting Mathcounts started in NW Minnesota in the mid-80s. Mathcounts is a national program created to encourage middle school students interest in math. John won the state competition in 1988 as an eighth grader which qualified him to participate at the national competition. John’s dad also started the high school math team which John competed on all four years. He was selected twice to the MN All-State Math Team for the National American Regions Math League competition.
Piano was also a large portion of John’s life here in Thief River. He studied with Marcia Knuttila for 13 years and competed in many Minnesota Music Teachers Association competitions as well as others. He was selected seven times to perform with other pianists at the Northrop Auditorium on the campus of the University of Minnesota.
John played three sports for the Prowlers: football, basketball and track & field. He started for the Prowlers as defensive end his sophomore year and played both ways his junior and senior year. He earned Academic All-State honors his senior year.
John graduated with a 4.0, along with three other of his classmates. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he earned both a B.S. and M.Eng in Electrical Engineering in 1997. His freshman year he played football and competed in indoor and outdoor track & field. He set a freshman record in both the 35lbs weight throw and hammer throw. He won the hammer throw at the Division III New England Championships, and qualified for and participated in the NCAA Division III National Championships. He also qualified for the USATF Junior National meet in Spokane Washington. His efforts on the football field and performance in the 35lbs weight and hammer throw earned him co-MIT Freshman Athlete of the Year honors. His sophomore year he earned his first All American award taking 6th in the 35lbs weight throw. In the outdoor season he just missed those honors by one place taking 9th in the hammer throw. His junior year he added two All American awards by taking 4th in the 35lbs weight throw and 3rd in hammer throw. He also won the hammer throw at the Division III New England Championships. He sat out his senior year indoors since he was going to be around for a fifth year for his masters. He set a varsity record in the hammer throw of 201’0″ and won the hammer throw at the Division III New England Championships setting a championship record, but came up short at nationals earning 2nd place for his fourth All American award. His efforts earned him the MIT Senior Male Athlete of the Year honors. His graduate year he won the 35lbs weight throw at the Division III New England Championships, and went on to earn his fifth All American award as he became the 1997 NCAA Division III 35lbs Weight Throw National Champion. His efforts on and off the field earned him the 1997 CoSIDA First Team At-Large Academic All-American honors and he was awarded a 1997 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
John joined Texas Instruments as an intern in 1994, and then full time after graduation in 1997 in Dallas, Texas. He worked in the Storage Products Group designing chips that go inside hard drives until 2000, at which point he joined a small start-up team within the Wireless Group. This team was tasked with designing the RF portion of a Bluetooth chipset into the same process as the analog and digital baseband so that it can be integrated into a single chip solution, reducing component size and cost. After being the first company in the industry to accomplish this in 2002, the team next focused on doing the same thing for a GSM chipset in 2004 and an EDGE chipset in 2007. During this time John worked on designing many different portions of these chips, which led to the majority of the 13 patents that he has received, and also took on a lead role for their EDGE solution. In 2010, he rejoined the SPG and then moved to a satellite office in Longmont, Colorado in 2012 to help support a local customer.
John married Verna Swim in 2002. They welcomed two boys into their family, Benjamin in 2007 and William in 2010. They reside in Longmont, Colorado.