Sir Valdemar Reid Skellerup CBE (also Skjellerup, 22 December 1907 – 11 June 1982) was a New Zealand industrialist. Skellerup was born in Christchurch in 1907. His father was George Skellerup (1881–1955), the founder of rubber manufacturing company Skellerup Industries. His mother was Elizabeth, née Reid. His father was born in Australia but the family stemmed from Denmark, with his father's birth name including a silent "j" that he dropped from the name at some point. On their birth certificates, the original spelling Skjellerup was used for all five siblings born between 1907 (Valdemar was the oldest) and 1918 (his brother Peter was the youngest). The three middle siblings were girls. Frank Skjellerup, an Australian amateur astronomer, was his uncle. Skellerup received his education at A