Robert (Bob) Pierret was born on August 20, 1940 and died October 21, 2021.  Bob spent his formative years in the Cleveland OH area, graduating as the valedictorian of Euclid Senior High School in 1958.  In 1962 he graduated from Case Institute of Technology (Cleveland OH) with a BS in Physics and a perfect “A” average, the first to do so at Case. He subsequently was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship, which he used to attend graduate school at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.  Bob received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois in 1966.

From 1967 – 1970 he was an Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Illinois.  He came to Purdue University, West Lafayette Indiana, as an Associate Professor in the fall of 1970, and was promoted to Full Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering in 1977.  Bob served as the school’s Assistant Head for Education from 1996 – 1999 and the Associate Head for Staff, Facilities, and Planning from 1999 to 2004 and again from 2010 to his retirement from Purdue on 1/1/2012.  His greatest academic achievements were the publication of the widely utilized “Modular Series on Solid State Devices” and the full-length textbook, “Semiconductor Device Fundamentals.”  On August 28, 2008, he was inducted into The Book of Great Teachers, which bears the names of faculty who have devoted their lives to excellence in teaching and scholarship.  They were chosen by their students and peers as Purdue’s finest educators.  Bob’s name hangs with those of the other great Purdue teachers in a side hall on the first floor of the Steward Center.

In recent years he has served as an AARP Foundation Tax-Aide volunteer at the Tippecanoe County senior center, becoming the local coordinator in 2013.  On average, the site has served 500 clients per year.  He has also presented six courses each consisting of four 1 ¼ hour lectures over two weeks for the Wabash Area Lifetime Learning Association.  Two of the courses dealt with taxes, two with Paris art museums, one with the Monuments, Memorials, and Museums of Washington DC, and the most recent with Notre Dame de Paris.  He enjoyed playing pickleball, the accordion, pool, and has traveled extensively both in the US and internationally with his wife Linda.

Bob met his wife at a pizza mixer on February 19, 1965, fell in love immediately, and they married on August 22, 1965.  There could have been no better spouse.  They have three children, Ross Pierret (spouse Kimberly), Suzanne Blosser (spouse Steve), and John Pierret (spouse Katherine), plus seven grandchildren, Michael, Jenna, and Hanna, Collin and Paige Blosser, and Logan and Marcus.  Michael is married to Victoria (Mathews), they have three children, Isaac, Gabriel, and Luna.  Surviving cousins are Cathy Henning and Noreen Fleming (spouse Bob).  Bob Pierret was the lone child of Frank and Elsie Pierret, both deceased.

Visitation will be held from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm on Wednesday, October 27, 2021 at Soller-Baker West Lafayette Chapel, 1184 Sagamore Parkway West, West Lafayette, IN 47906.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 am on Thursday, October 28, 2021 at Church of the Blessed Sacrament, 2224 Sacramento Ave., West Lafayette, IN 47906 with Fr. Mark Walter officiating. Entombment will follow at Tippecanoe Memory Gardens in West Lafayette.

Those wishing may contribute in Bob’s name Church of the Blessed Sacrament or the charity of their choice.