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Robert “Bob” Reuss, BS ’68, MS ’69, PhD ’72
From the CIA to a CGA: How Bob is Helping Future Chemists Dream Big
Robert “Bob” Reuss, BS ’68, MS ’69, PhD ’72 did not anticipate the career he had. Fortunately, his Drexel degrees prepared him well for the winding path that he took – and now he is helping future students navigate their own paths a charitable gift annuity.
From the CIA to Motorola, from Boulder to D.C. to Phoenix, Robert “Bob” Reuss, BS ’68, MS ’69, PhD ’72 crossed cities and sectors for his 35-year career in chemistry. Yet none of his positions were what he pictured as a child. He states, “You think you’re going to do A, B, C, D, but it doesn’t work like that. My career paid off in different ways than I expected.”
Bob’s original plan was hatched during high school in Havertown, Pennsylvania, where his chemistry teacher inspired him to study the same field in college. When he committed to Drexel University in 1964, he had already decided to become a chemistry professor.
At Drexel, Bob joined ROTC, the lacrosse team, and the , and completed co-ops at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and National Science Foundation. In junior year, he was given the opportunity to start graduate-level courses early. By 1969, he was already pursuing his PhD. Everything was going according to plan – until it wasn’t.
In 1971, Bob received draft papers for the Vietnam War. He was commissioned as a U.S. Army officer, sent to the Chemical Corps School in Alabama and then placed in the reserve. Finally, he could pursue a post-doctoral fellowship in Boulder. But here, he realized that being a professor may not fulfill him. What did he want to do now?
Inspired by Drexel peers, Bob applied to the CIA. He says, “They wanted program managers with science backgrounds to provide technical support for intelligence-gathering. It combined the research side of academia with the development side of industry.”
Bob worked for the CIA in Washington, D.C. for six years before being recruited by Motorola. He laughs, “People asked, ‘Why is a chemist at an electronics company?’ But electronics are, at their start, chemistry.” He held multiple roles in Phoenix and Chicago, answering myriad questions like: How can Motorola make special-purpose widgets in small batches? How can we make automotive batteries better? How can we adapt display technologies for other applications?
Finally, in the last leg of his full-time career, Bob returned to D.C. for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Here, he researched flexible electronics and developed a focused ion laser beam to correct defects in stencils for integrated circuits. By the time he retired in 2006, he had published 50 papers and received 13 patents.
Today, Bob is a consultant to government agencies, defense contractors and commercial suppliers. He consistently supports the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and lacrosse team. Recently, he established a charitable gift annuity (CGA) with Drexel. He says, “There was no question. I love to support academia. I love Drexel. A CGA was the easiest path to do something, since we’re not all that well-financed and didn’t want to overextend ourselves.”
To the chemists of tomorrow, Bob offers advice from experience: “Think about all the possibilities. You never know what you’ll love – or won’t love – until you get out there.”