Background
Rines was born August 30, 1922 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Rines was born August 30, 1922 in Boston, Massachusetts.
He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1943, a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University in 1946, and a Doctor of Philosophy from National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan in 1972.
He is perhaps best known for his efforts to find and identify the Loch Ness Monster. During World World War II Rines served as an Army Signal Corps officer and helped develop the Microwave Early Warning System. He held numerous United States. patents on a wide variety of subjects.
Although various on-line sources give their number as 80, 100, and even 200, the list published by the Franklin Pierce Law Center gives their number as 81, and 3 additional ones (Nos 6,175,326, 7,314,178, and 7,392,192) can also be found in the United States. Patent and Trademark Office records.
However, 12 of those in the larger list are referred to as “applications only”, leaving 72 actually issued United States. patents. At age eleven he played a violin duet with Albert Einstein at a summer camp in Maine.
As a composer he wrote music for both Broadway and off-Broadway shows, including Blast and Bravos, a musical based on the life of H. L. Mencken. He also composed scores for O"Casey"s Drums Under the Windows, O"Neill"s Long Voyage Home, and Strindberg"s Creditors.
His philanthropic activities included establishing the GREAT Fund, providing educational grants for a large extended family in perpetuity.
In May 2008 Rines retired from his position at Massachusetts Institute of Technology after 45 years. He died November 1, 2009 at the age of 87. During a visit to Scotland in 1972, Rines reported seeing “a large, darkish hump, covered.. with rough, mottled skin, like the back of an elephant” in Loch Ness.
Over the next 35 years he mounted numerous expeditions to the loch and searched its depths with sophisticated electronic and photographic equipment, mostly of his own design.
While his investigations produced multiple theories and several tantalizing photographs, he was unable to produce sufficient evidence to convince the scientific community of the existence of the fabled monster.
Rines also was inducted as member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994 and the United States. Army Signal Corps Wall of Fame. He was a lecturer at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the Technical Advisory Board of the United States. Department of Commerce.