Richard P. Reinert ’68

Date posted: August 13, 2015, 10:15 am

Richard Paul Reinert died, surrounded by his family, due to complications from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) on July 10, 2015, in Loveland, Colorado. He was 69.

Mr. Reinert was born in Newport, Rhode Island, on September 12, 1945, to William E. and Barbara C. Reinert. From age six, Mr. Reinert showed a passion for airplanes, space, and the cosmos. Following through on this passion, he graduated in 1968 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in aeronautic and astronautic engineering. Mr. Reinert's career in engineering took him to California, Washington State, and Colorado. During his career he often traveled to New Mexico and Washington, D.C., consulting with the Air Force on a variety of cutting-edge defense projects.

Outside of defense work, Mr. Reinert also worked on the Pioneer Venus Project, the Galileo Probe to Jupiter, and the Deep Impact comet penetrator. Mr. Reinert was known to family and friends as a patient and generous man. He demonstrated a deep interest in an array of subjects, including World War II history, physics, finance, science fiction, auto racing—a passion passed onto his son and, there is some evidence, to his grandson as well—and any other endeavor to further humanity.