It is with great sadness that we announce that our friend and former colleague Dr. Charles V. Breder passed away suddenly on Saturday, March 18, 2017, at the age of 77.
Keller and Heckman is grateful that Chuck spent 30 years of his career, from 1984 until his retirement in 2014, as a chemist with the firm. He was active in all aspects of the firm’s food and drug practice, where he worked on matters relating to food, food packaging, and medical devices. Chuck had a gift for simplifying complicated matters and communicating that information easily and thoroughly to the attorneys with whom he worked and firm clients whom he served.
Chuck was a dear friend to many at the firm, bringing not just superb analytical skills to his work, but great kindness and much humor to the office. He was an accomplished chemist, and a truly fine human being.
Prior to working at Keller and Heckman and for 13 years, Chuck worked as a chemist for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he helped establish and then supervised FDA’s Packaging Laboratory. Prior to his government service, he worked in industry where, among other things, he helped to develop new plastics.
Chuck graduated from Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, TN in 1962 with a B.S. degree in chemistry. In 1964 he earned an M.S. degree and in 1968 a Ph.D., both in organic chemistry from Vanderbilt University. He was an accomplished author, publishing numerous scientific papers and several book chapters, and he frequently presented on the testing and regulation of food packaging materials. For more than 50 years, he was a member of the American Chemical Society, and held memberships in the American Society for Testing and Materials and the Association of Official Analytical Chemists.
Chuck was a family man, who was married to his wife, Louanna Irene Breder, for 54 years. He was very proud of his family, raising a daughter, Janelle S. Harris (Jimmy) of Bristow, VA, and son, Eric (Lenora) of Greenville, RI. He took great delight in his grandchildren, James C. Harris, Ashley M. Harris, Isabella N. Breder, and Gabriel C. Breder.
He will be missed by so many and will be well-remembered by everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him and working with him.
