Bob Reiss: A Life Well Lived

Erik Engelson, UCSD class of '82/'84, donated a display in honor of his mentor, Bob Reiss, who first hired him into the field of cardiovascular devices.  The following is a short biography of Bob Reiss' life and service.

Bob Reiss: A Life Well Lived

 Bob Reiss was born on January 13, 1939 in New York City. He grew up with his younger siblings, Carol and John, in the projects in the lower east side of Manhattan. As a child, Bob spent many hours daydreaming about Charles Lindbergh and flying.

 He received a Bachelors Degree in Industrial Engineering from GMI in 1960. He was drafted into the army, where he trained as an interrogator and became fluent in Mandarin Chinese at the Army Language School in Monterey, CA. He went on to be the first one to receive a B.S. in Bioengineering from Columbia University in 1965.

His first position was a project engineer developing a type of artificial kidney, using membrane dialysis techniques. Claire Sung was a project chemist at the same firm.

In 1968, Claire and Bob married and moved to St. Louis, MO, to work as R&D group leader for Sherwood Medical – developing the first spinal tap kit and gut sutures. After the birth of Natasha, the family moved to Santa Cruz, CA, where Bob was Director of Engineering and Biosafety at I.V. Ometer. Tanya was born, and the family moved again, this time to Palo Alto, where Bob became Director of Operations at ALZA. There, he focused on the development of transdermal drug delivery systems, such as the scopolamine patch.

 In 1978, he accepted the position of COO of IMED in San Diego – a manufacturer of I.V. pumps. He was promoted to president in 1981, and two years later IMED was bought by Warner-Lambert.

In 1983, he became President and CEO of ACS (now Guidant Pharmaceuticals), innovating coronary angioplasty devices. Prior to Eli Lily purchasing the company in 1988, ACS was the first such company to achieve $100 million in annual sales within five years of product release.

 In 1988, Bob became Chairman, President and CEO of Interventional Technologies in San Diego. As one of the company’s founders, he had much to do with the vision, innovation, and quality product manufactured at IVT. The most notable IVT products are the guidewire, the TEC device, and the Cutting Balloon.

 After seventeen very successful years, IVT was purchased by Boston Scientific. That same year, Bob received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Phoenix CEO Conference, and he “semi-retired.” He was serving on the boards of two start-up companies, MedOptix, Inc. of Cupertino and Biocept, Inc. of San Diego.

Bob’s contributions to the world of industrial engineering and the medical device industry are innumerable. His management style, problem-solving abilities, integrity, and tenacity, all delivered with charm, wit, and a bit of an edge, were among his hallmark traits.

 He distinguished himself in his field by receiving the following awards:

1982: Outstanding Achievement Award, GMI; American Institute of Industrial Engineers, San Diego Chapter, Man of the Year Award for contributions to management;

1983: American Institute of Industrial Engineers – Outstanding Achievement in Management Award;

1991: Distinguished Service Award – Marine Corps League;

1994: Honorary Doctorate of Engineering from GMI;

1995: Elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineers;

He was nominated twice for San Diego Entrepreneur of the Year;

He is listed in the 1991 “Who’s Who Official Registry of American Business Leaders Worldwide;”

He holds twelve patents on medical devices.

  Bob’s passion for flying was insatiable over the past 34 years. In 1971, he began to pursue one rating after another, including his Certified Flight Instructor rating, and taught students for years. He loved the challenge of his Cessna 195, a bull-headed taildragger which he bought, sold, and immediately bought again. The first family plane was “Mr. Stinson.” The Stearman, an army open-cockpit bi-plane, was for pleasure and nostalgia. He circumnavigated the globe four time between 1992 and 2002, twice solo, in his prop-jet Bonanza. He was a knowledgeable and gifted speaker, and was widely sought after for lecturing on flight safety and how to fly long distances.

 His philanthropy in the aviation community included:

Chairman of the American Airpower Heritage Museum and its first Lifetime Member;

Donor/sponsor of the FM2 Wildcat; Polikarpov; and Fairy Swordfish;

Founder of the Stinson Club and President of the Cessna 195 Club;

Contributing Editor to ABS Magazine;

Member of the World Beechcraft Society;

Lifetime Member/Major Donor to the San Diego Auto Museum and San Diego Aerospace Museum;

Key contributor to the USS San Diego Memorial in San Diego, and the Task Force USA Monument in San Diego.

 Bob’s life was one of the stuff of which myths are made. He was respected by all who knew him for his broad knowledge base. He freely and passionately conversed about politics, religion, ancient history, military history, aviation minutiae, science, engineering, and economics.

 He overcame innumerable obstacles by the grace of God and the power of persistence. His charm and humor will never be forgotten by all who knew him, employees and friends, family and aviators. He was always ready for the next challenge, but he also knew when it was time to change course.

 His final fight, with renal cell carcinoma, was a brave one because he used one tool, one weapon after another until he found the one that worked. He realized in his last few weeks that the solution was to let go of the physical world, stop suffering, and go Home.

 His favorite quote from St. Thomas Aquinas: “Happiness is the conscious possession of a good.”

May the roads rise up to meet you,
And may the winds be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
And the rain fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again, dear Bob,
May the good Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.