Charles B. Shakespeare, 86, pilot and engineer

Charles B. Shakespeare of Moorestown, 86, a pilot and engineer who designed helicopters and several innovative medical devices, died Saturday, Jan. 21, of multiple myeloma at Samaritan Healthcare and Hospice in Mount Holly.

Starting as a young man, Mr. Shakespeare worked for the Boeing Corp., where he helped to develop the fast, heavy-lifting, twin-rotor Chinook helicopter that played a major role in the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War. He later worked for several medical-technology design firms, where he played leading roles in developing a blood cell analyzer, a wearable heart monitor, and ultrasound devices.

In junior high school he took up the tuba, but at Lower Merion High School, "Charlie" discovered the wind instrument that would be his truest love: the airplane. He took on several after-school jobs to pay for flying lessons and earned his pilot's license while still a teenager.

In 1949 he entered Lehigh University, where he joined Air Force ROTC and earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. After graduating in 1953, he married June Aletha Culp, then entered the Air Force. As the Korean War raged on a distant continent, he found himself stationed in Munich, where he piloted A-26 light bombers in a tow-target squadron.

After completing his military service in 1955, he began work for the Boeing plant in Ridley Park,  which would win a contract to develop a new class of large, versatile transport helicopter for the U.S. Army. Mr. Shakespeare became a senior engineer on the project, and the Chinook — which is still in production — would prove to be one of history's most successful aeronautical designs.

"He felt he had his dream job: a pilot and an engineer," his second wife, Kathleen Magee Shakespeare, recalled last week. But as Mr. Shakespeare grew opposed to America's role in the Vietnam War, he came to regret his role in the Chinook's creation, she said, and in 1968 quit Boeing to turn his attention to medical technology. He also took part in civil rights demonstrations because, she said, "he was passionate about social justice."

A daughter from his first marriage, Hannah Shakespeare, recalled that her parents would often co-sign for the mortgages of African American couples who could not get mortgages from banks.

"They had a lot of people indebted to them," she said, "by which I mean grateful."

The marriage ended in divorce in 1978.

As head of engineering at Geometric Data, a division of Smith, Kline & French Laboratories, Mr. Shakespeare led the development of the automated differential blood analyzer, according to the family. In the 1970s he departed Geometric to found Aegis Medical Systems of Mount Laurel, which pioneered and marketed an innovative wearable electrocardiogram.

In 1981 Mr. Shakespeare remarried, and in 1987 started at the Interspec Corp., where he participated in the development of ultrasound imaging devices. In 1994, he became head of engineering at Spectrasonics Imaging of Wayne and developed electronics that allowed imaging systems to distinguish various kinds of prostate cancer.

"When he arrived with us, he was already a senior individual, but he kept up with the technology in what is usually a young man's business," said Richard Bernardi, Spectrasonics' president. "He was a very pleasant individual. A very good engineer and a very good manager of people and projects."

Throughout his life he continually took to the skies, typically by flying his own glider out of Beltsville, Pa., as recently as last year. He also was a maker of "gorgeous" wood furniture, according to his wife, who said that after retiring from Spectrasonics in 2008, he took up once again the first wind instrument of his youth, the tuba. He started played with a Moorestown troupe called Bob's Bandits, and took particular delight in playing at the annual Christmas Tuba Concert at the Kimmel Center, she said.

A lifelong Democrat who served for many years on his party's township committee, he once joked with his wife that he wanted his funeral to be a "Democratic party."

In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by sons Joseph and Matthew and two grandchildren. Donations may be made to Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Camden.

The family will hold a memorial service for Mr. Shakespeare at 10:30 a.m. March 4 at the Mount Laurel Home for Funerals in Mount Laurel.