Robert Hillberg (August 27, 1917 – August 12, 2012) was a firearm designer and the head of Research & Development at the High Standard Manufacturing Company. His designs included the folding shotgun stock, the Whitney Wolverine lightweight pistol, Wildey .45 gas-operated pistol, COP .357 Derringer pistol, and M60 machine gun. Hillberg developed a variety of insurgency weapons, primarily multiple barrel shotguns, which could be covertly distributed to partisan forces fighting in the United States' national interests. Gun Digest editors have described Hillberg as a "national treasure." History Born in Anamosa, Iowa on August 27, 1917, as a boy Robert L. Hillberg accompanied his father, Carl Walter Hillberg, on hunting trips in Minnesota and South Dakota. Although Hillberg did attend the University of Minnesota for several years, he was not formally trained in firearms design. He demonstrated a working prototype .357 Magnum submachine gun of his own design to Colt Firearms located in Hartford, Connecticut in 1938. Colt did not buy the gun, but they did offer Hillberg a job. In 1940 Hillberg accepted employment in the engineering department of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, in East Hartford, where he designed engine components. Hillberg moved to Burlington, Vermont in 1942 to work as a project engineer for Bell Aircraft's ordinance division. In addition to aircraft projects (including the B-17) Hillberg completed a prototype .30 caliber carbine at Bell, which had been started at Pratt & Whitney. After the war, in 1947, he was placed in charge of Republic Aviation's armament division, in Farmingdale, New York. He worked on adapting weapons designed for use on the ground to aircraft, such as the F-84 Thunderjet as well as F-91 prototypes, with all the challenges inherent in that problem. While at Republic Hillberg designed several automatic pistols, including for the first time in the gun industry solving the problem of having interchangeable barrels for multiple calibers in the same gun. Hillberg left the aircraft industry in 1951, and went to work for High Standard Manufacturing Company in Hamden, Connecticut, as head of research and development. In addition to High Standard pistols, Hillberg worked on new designs for the J. C. Higgins brand of guns for Sears, Roebuck & Company. High Standard manufactured some military weapons. Hillberg designed a tank version of the Browning .30 caliber machine gun for the Springfield Armory and the Detroit Tank Arsenal. This gun was later put into production as the