In 1958 he was named director of the ORNL Reactor Division. He was appointed assistant director in 1955, and in the same year received the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce award as one of America’s Ten Outstanding Young Men. Upon graduation, Bob joined the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) as a physicist. To the Carnegie Institute of Technology and graduated with an honors BS in 1948, an MS in 1949, and a DSc in theoretical physics in 1950. Grateful for the opportunity, he later created the Charpie Scholars program, enabling students who demonstrate strong leadership skills to attend his alma mater.Īfter his first year of college, he was inducted into the US Army in January 1944 and served as a machine gunner in the Tenth Infantry Division. In 1943 Bob was one of ten high school students nationwide honored as a Westinghouse Scholar and received a full scholarship to Carnegie Institute of Technology, which he entered at age 17. Beth was so impressed by the program that she majored in education in college and then taught exceptional students in Cleveland’s Major Work classes. At the age of 12, he joined a series of classes for gifted students where he met his future wife and best friend for life. Raised on Cleveland’s East Side, he was recognized early in life as a remarkable scholar.

He was renowned, nationally and internationally, for his scientific, industrial, and educational leadership in harnessing technology and innovation for the benefit of society.īob, as he was generally called, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 9, 1925.

CHARPIE, former CEO of Cabot Corporation, died on October 13, 2011, at the age of 86, just 25 days after the loss of his beloved wife of 64 years, Elizabeth. RAGONE SUBMITTED BY THE NAE HOME SECRETARY

“For contributions to nuclear, electronic, photographic, and energy-related enterprises.”īY DAVID V.

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