Robert H. Rines | Inventor, physicist, 87
Robert H. Rines, 87, a lawyer, composer, inventor, and physicist whose discoveries led to sharper resolution in radar, sonar, and ultrasound imaging and who claimed to have seen the Loch Ness Monster, died of heart failure at his home in Boston on Sunday.
Robert H. Rines, 87, a lawyer, composer, inventor, and physicist whose discoveries led to sharper resolution in radar, sonar, and ultrasound imaging and who claimed to have seen the Loch Ness Monster, died of heart failure at his home in Boston on Sunday.
Dr. Rines invented prototype radar and sonar technology that was later also incorporated in ultrasound imaging of internal organs. He donated the radar patent to the U.S. government and gave the imaging patent to the rest of the world to use for free.
Dr. Rines held more than 80 patents. The radar-technology patent - developed while he was a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's radiation laboratory and honed while serving as a U.S. Signal Corps officer during WWII - formed the underlying technology used to guide Patriot missiles during the 1991 Gulf War and produce early-warning missile-detection systems and other sophisticated military hardware.
He also wrote music for more than 10 Broadway and off-Broadway productions and shared an Emmy for his work on a piece about New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.
Born in Boston, Dr. Rines graduated from MIT and received a law degree from Georgetown. He completed a doctorate thesis at National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan.
Dr. Rines used some of his inventions in attempts to prove the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, and claimed to have seen Nessie in 1971. - AP