An alumnus of Georgetown University’s law school and a Renaissance man, Robert Rines (LAW ’47) died on Nov. 1 at the age of 87.

Rines specialized in many fields over his lifetime – patent law, engineering, music composition and the search for the Loch Ness monster.

According to [the Franklin Pierce Law Center’s biography of him](https://www.piercelaw.edu/trustees/robertrines.php), Rines was born in Boston in 1922 and began studying and practicing the violin at the age of 4. He played a duet with Albert Einstein at a Maine summer camp at age 11.

He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1942 with a bachelor of science degree in physics. During this time, he wrote numerous musical compositions as well as the music for the television and Broadway play entitled “Hiz Honor the Mayor,” for which he shared an Emmy in 1987.

Rines served as a radar officer during World War II, and invented the microwave modulation and scanning technique used to build the Army’s then top-secret Microwave Early Warning System. This technique was later used to locate the wreck of the Titanic in 1985. Rines also used the technique later in his life to search for the Loch Ness monster.

After the war, Rines worked as an examiner for the United States Patent and Trademark Office and attended Georgetown University Law School to obtain his law degree in 1947. According to the Franklin Pierce Law Center’s biography of Rines, he later founded the Franklin Pierce Law Center in 1973 to modernize legal education and to help the U.S. patent system.

“He was the epitome of the Renaissance man. He did everything,” said Barbara Wilson, associate director of communications for the Franklin Pierce Law Center.

“Dr. Rines co-founded this school with the idea that law was taught in a much too abstract manner. He wanted to give a law education that would focus more on practical aspects and allow graduates to immediately begin practicing.”

Wilson also said that Rines’ time at Georgetown had a large impact on his establishment of the Pierce Law Center.

“The Jesuit philosophy of educating the whole person is evident at Franklin Pierce,” Wilson said. “His viewpoint was that you will always be a better lawyer if you can be a whole person.”

Despite his many accomplishments, Rines is most remembered for his experience as a cryptozoologist in pursuit of the Loch Ness monster. He used his own patented technology of sonar and underwater cameras to capture images of what was believed to be a plesiosaur, or type of aquatic dinosaur, that were published in Nature magazine in 1975.”