Bob Buchheim graduated from St. Paul High School in 1940. After serving in the Marine Corps during World War II, he attended Yale University earning his bachelors degree in 1946, Masters degree in 1948, and Ph.D. in 1953.

Bob served on the Yale faculty, then joined North American Aviation and later Rand Corp., where he was head of the aero-astronautics department from 1954 to 1963. He directed studies to solve a number of aerospace problems and also was active in planning space flight. Bob was named chief scientist for the U.S. Air Force and served at the Pentagon from 1963 to 1964. He was responsible for providing technical and scientific advice to the Air Force Chief of Staff. At the end of 1964 he received the Exceptional Civilian Service Award, the highest award given by the Air Force to civilians. In 1967 and 1968, Bob was executive director of research and engineering at North American Rockwell Corp. In 1968-69 he was professor and associate provost at Vanderbilt University. From 1969-1971 he was executive vice president and president of Southwestern Research Corp. in Phoenix, AZ and was a consultant from 1971-1973. Bob lectured at many universities throughout the country and wrote 16 books all published by Rand on astronautics and it’s application, submersible aircraft, earth to moon space travel, lunar trajectories, types of space flights, lunar instrument carrier, space exploration, and artificial satellites of the moon, to mention a few.

Bob was Deputy Assistant Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency from 1973 to 1977 and served in that post until joining the Standing Consultative Commission of SALT. He spent all of 1976 in the Soviet Union and 1977 in Geneva, Switzerland. President Jimmy Carter named him an Ambassador of the Arms Control Agency while serving as Acting U.S. Commissioner on the SCC.

Dr. Robert W. Buchheim passed away in December of 1995.