Motorola executive known as 'The Wizard' was ahead of his time

When people trade photos and videos from their smartphones today, it is hard to remember a time when such pocket-size computers weren't used to transport huge chunks of data.

The same goes for wireless systems serving as the backbones of communications networks.

Thomas Freeburg not only foresaw it, he helped make it happen.

Freeburg, a St. Charles Township resident known by family and friends as "The Wizard," died last week after a battle with leukemia. He was 75.

A former resident of Arlington Heights, he spent 40 years at Motorola, retiring in 2003 as corporate vice president, director of technology and chief futurist.

Dennis Roberson, former executive vice president and chief technology officer, called Freeburg "very prophetic."

"The area that he focused on was data in a time when cellphones were only voice," he said. "It wasn't even remotely conceived of as a data device."

Roberson said Freeburg's vision would often conflict with the prevailing thinking at Motorola.

"He saw wireless data as being a critical part of the future. And people really didn't understand that at all," he said. "And now that's, of course, laughable because our cellphones, our smartphones, are all about data."

Freeburg proved prescient in recognizing the role the "unlicensed spectrum," which is used for Wi-Fi, would play. He was the leader of the team in the late 1990s that produced Canopy, a system for providing wireless high-speed internet.

Roberson said Freeburg's ability to see far into the future earned him the title of chief futurist. As early as 1998, he foresaw the technology used today for smart refrigerators and other smart appliances.

In an article published in 1997 in The Harvard Conference on the Internet & Society, Freeburg was quoted speculating about the possibility of "the internet in your pocket,"

"Sitting here right now, how can we predict what's going to happen in the future?" he asked. "It would be like having our grandfathers be able to predict the effects brought by the invention of the automobile - the national highway system, and the development of the railroads, for example - well before they happened. We have to leave a little up to imagination."

Freeburg's active imagination led him to produce about 80 patents and more than 120 papers.

Born in Peoria and raised in nearby Germantown, Freeburg suffered from polio when he was 6 years old, forcing him to miss a year of school, said his widow, Sharon Darling. It was around that time that he displayed his inventiveness, rigging up a riding lawn mower to his Radio Flyer wagon, she said.

Freeburg later graduated from Bradley University and shortly after began working for Motorola. In the early days of his career, he focused on radio technology, particularly that used by police.

In his retirement, Freeburg was able to indulge in hobbies, such as making cabinets and furniture in the workshop at the Greek Revival farmhouse where he and his wife lived. The couple also shared her interest in the history of architectural terra cotta - Darling writes books on the subject. In the process, he became an accomplished architectural photographer.

"He loved learning," Darling said. "He was just a sponge for soaking up information, but he always had a use for it, too."

A memorial service will be held Oct. 28. For details, visit thomasfreeburg.remembered.com.