Richard S. Rehder ’61

Richard Rehder died June 6, 2005, of heart failure.

He was born and grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, and went to University High School. Interested in music from an early age, he began the piano in elementary school and the clarinet in high school. He also joined the high school band, which he conducted at concerts in his senior year. At Princeton he majored in music, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and continued piano lessons in college, achieving near-concert standard. Richard enjoyed improvising on classical melodies, often of his own composition, for hours at a time.

Awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to study music and composition at the University of California, Berkeley, he also took courses in mathematics and computers there. He then worked for the Navy as a computer programmer. Among the problems he worked on was finding the most effective and efficient way of supplying all the ships at sea and devising the necessary software.

Richard took early retirement from the Navy and returned to Iowa City, where he spent his time studying music and mathematics, playing the piano, and working as a volunteer at the University Hospital.

He is survived by his brother, Robert '57.