Lawrence L. Rodberg, Air-Freight Leader, Dies

NEWPORT BEACH —  Lawrence L. Rodberg of Newport Beach, a former top executive of three air-freight companies, died Wednesday of leukemia. He was 68.

Rodberg founded Burlington Northern Air Freight in Irvine in 1972. He was chairman and chief executive until 1984, when he resigned to become chairman and chief executive of Air Express International Corp., touching off a lawsuit between the two companies.

In 1986, he resigned from Air Express to become president and chief executive of WTC Air Freight Inc. in Torrance.

The next year he started Eden Air Freight in Irvine.

Rodberg was a lifelong resident of Southern California and a graduate of USC. He started in the freight-forwarding business in 1951 at Airborne Freight Corp.

He left in 1964 to form Capitol Air, which was acquired two years later by Pacific Air Freight. Pacific and Airborne later merged, a transaction in which Rodberg was said to be instrumental.

After Rodberg helped start Burlington Northern Air Freight, the company was acquired by Pittston Co. in 1982. Rodberg and Pittston didn’t see eye to eye on corporate strategy, Rodberg said in a later interview, and he left for Air Express.

Burlington Northern sued, saying Rodberg violated an agreement with Pittston by leaving. An Orange County Superior Court judge refused to grant Burlington an injunction.

Rodberg had disagreed with Pittston over whether Burlington Northern should buy its own planes. Unlike companies in the air express business, such as Federal Express, air freight companies such as Burlington Northern usually don’t own a fleet of airplanes; they ship freight on regular commercial flights.

Pittston wanted to buy such a fleet, Rodberg said in an interview two years ago, and it eventually did buy the planes, at which point it began to lose money on the air-freight business.

Eden, Rodberg’s latest company, owns no planes. The privately held company, founded three years ago, has annual revenues of $40 million.

Rodberg is survived by his wife, Donna, and four children: Larry P. Rodberg of Newport Beach, Eden’s executive vice president who, the company said, is expected to succeed his father as president; Luana and Thomas, both of Irvine, and Jon of Laguna Hills.