Innovator, founder of high-tech companies
A high-tech inventor, mathematician and engineer, Giorgio Coraluppi left nothing undone as an octogenarian who worked until his last days as president and CEO of Monroeville-based Compunetics, Compunetix and Chorus Call.
“Giorgio was a special man — a genius,” said Audrey Russo, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Technology Council, where Mr. Coraluppi was a board member. “He was someone who had a relentless vision and he worked to the end. It’s pretty amazing.”
Mr. Coraluppi, of Point Breeze, the award-winning creator of the technology behind the modern-day conference call and video conferencing, died Sept. 28 of heart failure. He was 88.
Mr. Coraluppi, “Dr. C” to friends, was born in L’Aquila, the capital city of the Abruzzo region in central Italy, where his father was a high school principal.
His memories of growing up during World War II were harrowing, said his son Stefano Coraluppi, of Newton, Mass.
“He had a lot of stories about the war,” his son said. “His family had been assigned living quarters because of the school, in a twostory apartment building. But during the last couple of years of the war, when the
Germans occupied Italy, German soldiers lived on the upper floor. The family basically was living next door to the German command in the town.
“They had to remember to always keep things cordial — it was an unusual living arrangement. In that situation, you grow up pretty quickly. When he was a boy, my dad at various times was asked to relay information to the ‘Partigiani’ — the Italian freedom fighters. His father listened to Radio London and he would send news to people who were in hiding. Nowadays, that is inconceivable.”
After the war, the family moved to Milan, where Mr. Coraluppi attended the Polytechnic University of Milan and earned a Ph.D. in engineering in 1958.
He was a research assistant at the school before fulfilling his required military service as an officer in the
Italian Air Force for 18 months.
In 1961, Mr. Coraluppi began teaching at the university while working at the Electronics Research Laboratory of Olivetti.
“It was an Italian computer maker and their lab had a lot of international researchers, so he had some American colleagues there,” his son said.
Around the same time, Mr. Coraluppi met Luisa Tonzig, a friend of one of his sisters.
The couple married in April 1963 and a year later immigrated to the U.S., after Mr. Coraluppi answered an ad in his local newspaper for engineers at the Space/Defense Division of the American Optical Co. in Pittsburgh.
“When they moved, the plan was that they would stay in America for a couple of years and return to Italy,” their son said. “But, obviously, two years turned into something much longer.”
During his first few years in Pittsburgh, Mr. Coraluppi began studying at Carnegie Mellon University, where he earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1966.
“He was just interested in learning more, although he already had an advanced degree,” his son said.
Mr. Coraluppi started Compunetics in 1968. In later years, he founded Compunetix and Chorus Call. Each had a different role in the high-tech sector.
“He wanted to be able to make decisions and not be constrained by management,” his son said. “That sort of motivated him to go beyond.”
Over the years, Mr. Coraluppi secured several contracts with the U.S. military for hardware and software used in anti-submarine warfare, communications systems and other applications. He also developed communications networks for NASA and the private sector, for companies including U.S. Steel and Westinghouse.
Though he was routinely competing with giants like IBM and Raytheon, Mr. Coraluppi wasn’t distracted by the typical trappings of multimillion-dollar contractors, like private jets or gleaming offices.
In fact, he met with a group of naval officials in 1968 to secure a lucrative contract in his first office — located behind a Dairy Queen in Monroeville.
“I developed some respect for a system which was not discriminating against a group of five people in the back of a Dairy Queen, led by a recent immigrant,” Mr. Coraluppi recalled in an April 1985 Post-Gazette story. “I don’t know whether this could have happened anywhere else in the world.”
Mr. Coraluppi was not only proud of the companies he founded, he was determined to promote an ethical culture in the workplace, said Michael Hockenberry, vice president of Chorus Call, which is now the parent of Mr. Coraluppi’s three companies.
“Chorus Call was once named as one of the most ethical companies in hightech, and that is a direct reflection of Dr. C,” he said. “It’s the idea of a virtual handshake and making sure that our customers would be happy with what they bought from us.
“He would use the analogy that we were like painters and the products we produce are paintings. We sign our paintings with our name and whoever buys those paintings, we want them to be proud of what they bought and display it proudly. He would teach us to look at what we do as a reflection of us.”
One of Mr. Coraluppi’s proudest moments came when a defense contractor traveled to Monroeville to meet the team that designed the technology that NORAD — the North American Aerospace Defense Command — used to monitor the skies.
“They felt so compelled by how hard we worked that they wanted to come and say, ‘Thank you,’ ” Mr.
Hockenberry recalled. “Dr. C was really proud of that.”
Mr. Coraluppi was recognized professionally over the years, including being inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame in 2020 and being named CEO of the Year by the Pittsburgh Technology Council in 2013.
Earlier this year, Mr. Coraluppi established an eponymous endowment in electrical and computer engineering at CMU.
“Giorgio has been a confidant and a mentor to me,” said Ms. Russo of the Pittsburgh Technology Council. “He was someone who very often might be silent, but when he spoke, he came out with a lot of poise and kindness and business acumen. He used to say we were started as a band of desperadoes, people who were moving against all odds and achieving greatness with a relentless vision to make this a community that built the future. He did that and there wasa lot of kindness in him.”
Along with his wife and son, Mr. Coraluppi is survived by daughters Sabina Coraluppi and Monica Coraluppi, both Shadyside, and Chiara Watkins, of Point Breeze; a sister Luisa Coraluppi, of Milan, Italy; and six grandchildren. His funeral was Oct. 3. Donations may be made in Giorgio’s memory to Saint Paul Cathedral, 108 N. DithridgeSt, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.