Obituary of Christian Friedrich Horn

Dr. Christian F. Horn December 23, 1927 ? October 2, 2010 Dr. Christian F. Horn died October 2, 2010 after a prolonged and challenging battle against Parkinson?s disease. He was 82 and is survived by his wife of 57 years Christa W. Horn, daughter Sabrina and granddaughters Grace and Christina. He was a man of many great accomplishments both personal and professional. He beat all the odds in WWII as a 17-year-old soldier training to be a paratrooper. His soon to be wife survived the fire bombings of Dresden in her house. With his wife, Dr. Horn was one of only a few German research chemists hired by Union Carbide after WWII. With a PhD in chemical engineering, he earned 48 U.S. patents in polymer fabric technology, including the formula for Lycra, which was later sold to DuPont. He also invented the ability to colorize polyester. Later, he started Polymer Technology, a consulting company based in New York City. He and his family lived in Frankfurt Germany for two years when he was asked to be acting president of Zimmer, A.G., and then returned to the U.S. to start Chrislon Corporation, his own company that was a polymer fiber extrusion plant in the Carolinas. The rest of his career was spent at W.R. Grace and Co. where he served on its Board of Directors and ran Research and Development, bringing the company into many new businesses. He was featured on the cover of Chemical Week for all of his contributions to the industry. And at the age of 50, he taught himself the venture capital business, got some investment capital and moved to California. He invested in and saved countless companies, created new markets where there were none, and created 1000s of jobs. He was a generous man, loving husband and a tough father. He rewarded those who never asked for any favors, and was tough on those that did. He did not suffer fools gladly, and he truly ?ran the show? everywhere, all the time, and with every one. He taught us to never give up if you really believe in something. He was always intellectually curious and beat the odds again when he developed his own vitamin/herbal regimen to treat his prostate cancer. This research was documented by Johns Hopkins University. When he was diagnosed with Parkinson?s Disease at the age of 72, he began an all out fight against his ultimate prognosis. He studied and researched, and tried every form of treatment available to him at the time. He beat everyone?s odds for enduring hospice for 8 months. In the end, he is still beating the odds, because he is watching over us now, and because he has a family that loves him forever and will never forget him.