Sam C. Lindberg died peacefully in his sleep on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. He was born Sam Claes Lindberg on Jan. 10, 1932, in Geneva, Switzerland, of Swedish parents, Dr. John Lindberg and Gudrun Ulander Lindberg. His father was a diplomat serving in various official capacities in the Secretariat of the League of Nations. Sam’s early years were spent alternatively between Geneva and Stockholm, Sweden. In September 1940, unable to return to Sweden because of World War II’s outbreak in 1939, the family escaped Europe and settled in America, eventually locating in Princeton, New Jersey, where his father had an appointment at the Institute for Advanced Studies.

Sam graduated from Princeton High School in 1951 and graduated from Columbia University in 1955 after a term of his Junior year at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. He then served two years in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Beginning in the foreign department of the Morgan Bank, his professional career transitioned to marketing, printing, and publishing for Look and Show magazines and his own venture of Seasonal Press Magazines. He married Amanda Atwood and, with two children, Erica and Kate, moved to Stonington.

Following the termination of his first marriage, he moved to New Haven to continue his career in the world of printing at Van Dyck Printing and W.E. Andrews Printing Co., then founded his own company, Image Development, in 1986 — a Service for the Print Buyer. In retirement, he co-authored with Jess Maghan a book published in 2009 entitled 40 Sons and Daughters, Finding Father Within.

In 1978 he married Nikki (Naomi de Langley Torrence), the love of his life. She had four children from her previous marriage to Robert G. Torrence — Leland, Grier, Corbett, and Serena.

Nikki was a not-for-profit organization executive. Her last job before retirement was with the Albert Schweitzer Institute, which afforded them the opportunity to travel together to Eastern Europe, the Baltic states, and Central Asia. They were able to experience much of the world that fell behind the Iron Curtain, a rare perspective in those times. This fueled their passion for travel which they enjoyed in retirement, planning regular trips with his sister Siri and her husband Harry Branson and Nikki’s brother Robert de Langley and his wife Eve.

In 1998 Sam and Nikki settled in Chester after selling their Londonderry, Vermont and Hamden residences. They spent much of their time landscaping (Sam loved to build dry stone walls!), gardening, cooking, entertaining, classical and semi-classical music, golf and tennis, and other sporting activities either as members of the Old Lyme Country Club or with the Chester Kayakers and Hiking Group and skiing in Vermont, out west or in Europe. They enjoyed working with the Chester Land Trust and the Chester Historical Society and Meals on Wheels.

They moved to Essex Meadows in Essex in 2016.

Sam is survived by his wife of 45 years, his sister, his two daughters, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, his four stepchildren, and seven step-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to the Essex Land Trust or the Essex Historical Society with a deep appreciation for the Preserve, the Falls River project, and the surroundings he so enjoyed. Services will be private.