From growing up in Pennsylvania to serving in the U.S. Air Force and working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 90-year-old Robert “Bob” Lauer has a life filled with dedication, adventure, and achievement. Bob is now a resident at Morning Pointe of Powell, Tennessee.
Childhood
Bob was born on Aug. 14, 1934, in Hanover Township, Pennsylvania. His father, Robert, was a truck driver. His mother, Dora, not only raised Bob, his two younger brothers, and his younger sister but also worked odd jobs during World War II, such as sewing parachutes for the troops.
“I lived in a little house almost on the banks of the Susquehanna River,” Bob remembered. He loved hiking and playing on a nearby island in the river, playing baseball, running track and playing football in high school.
Military Service
“I joined the Air Force a few months out of high school,” said Bob. “On my 18th birthday, I went up to town and registered for the draft and registered for the Air Force right across the hall.”
His goal was to be a pilot. However, due to a lack of depth perception and coordination, he was not able to pass the test for that role. Instead, he became a technician on the gunnery systems. He trained in Denver, Colorado, and then was stationed at Lake Charles, Louisiana, working on B-47 gunnery systems.
At the time, the B-47 was new, and there were many recruits training on the planes. “Advancement was pretty stiff because there were so many of us,” Bob shared. So, he made sure he worked hard.
“I was offered a chance to work shift work at the base,” Bob explained. “I would meet the aircraft as they came in from missions at night, and I would take information from the pilot and the copilot on problems that they had with the plane. Then I would go back to my office and type up work orders for the next morning.”
Bob enjoyed that work, learning all sorts of interesting things from the crew as they flew all over the world. One time, a plane came in from Newfoundland. “It parked, and the commander of the airplane came over to me and said, ‘Son, back your pickup truck up to the bomb bay,’” Bob remembered. “I said, ‘Yes, Sir.’ I backed up to the airplane, and they started unloading all this whiskey. After they got done loading it, they covered it up, and the colonel that was in charge said, ‘You’re going to take that to the officers club.’ So, I drove to the officers club, and they unloaded it. Then he reached in and grabbed a bottle and said, ‘Here, son. For your trouble.’”
One summer, Bob got to serve in England as well. He described it as “different than America but a nice place.”
Over his four years in the Air Force, Bob did advance, earning three stripes. “As soon as I was able to get promoted, I’d get promoted.” Bob discharged from the military as a sergeant.
Family and Education
After his service, Bob went back to Pennsylvania and started college. He had met a Cajun girl named Laura in Lake Charles, and she came up to meet his family. They got married in 1958, and Bob moved to Louisiana and completed his college degree from McNeese State University. He earned a degree in physics with a minor in nuclear physics.
The Lauers had their first child, Kathy, just before Bob graduated in 1961. She was later followed by a son, Robert Junior, in 1963, and another daughter, Lisa, in 1966. The family has since expanded to include four granddaughters and four great-grandchildren.
Out of school, Bob got several job offers in Louisiana but wasn’t interested in any of them. When he heard of an opening at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He started working there, moving their family in 1961.
Oak Ridge Engineer
Bob started at ORNL as an operator of calutrons (an instrument that separates isotopes of uranium), a job he did for seven years. It was shift work, and after working so many shifts, he got a week off, and he and Laura would go visit her family in Lake Charles.
Then Bob was promoted to engineer, and later he was “loaned” to the Atomic Energy Commission and went to Washington, D.C., for nine months. He and his family didn’t like the D.C. area and returned to Lake Charles. He stayed in the plant and equipment division.
One of the most interesting things Bob did as an engineer was that he built a fire and impact shield for ORNL. “It’s a box that you put radioactive materials in, and it gets shipped around the world, so it has to be very special, and it had to meet very special standards,” he said. “I got a commendation for that.”
Bob worked his way up to the supervisor position. “I was responsible for people who supported all the research organization in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, people like electricians, carpenters, pipe fitters, all the craftspeople,” Bob explained. “We did the work for the research organizations, mostly for the reactors. It was very interesting work. I made sure that I went around the lab and checked in with everyone.”
When Bob retired after 33 years at the organization, they were starting to shut down most of the reactors.
Retirement and Coming to Morning Pointe
After retirement, Bob and Laura traveled, including to Heidelberg, where they found a street called Lauerstrasse, which means Lauer Road. He also took up an interesting hobby of collecting and setting up electric trains. He had been fascinated with model railroads since childhood – his father had given him an electric train for his first Christmas. “I had electric trains all over the basement,” Bob said of his retirement years. He built them himself, along with a sunroom and shed for their house.
Sadly, Laura passed away in 2020. As time went on, and after Bob survived cancer, managing a house by himself became more difficult. “I was living by myself, and I was getting where I couldn’t do the things I should do,” Bob shared. His children helped him find an assisted living community.
Bob became a Morning Pointe of Powell resident in March 2024. “I’m satisfied at Morning Pointe,” he said. “I’m taken care of.” He also enjoys attending parties at the community.
Bob shared some of the things that he’s most proud of in his life: “I’m proud of my children. I’m proud of the work I did. I’m proud of all the people I met doing that work. I was around some top scientists, and I could converse with them.”
We are thankful for Bob, his service to our country and his contributions to engineering. Bob, we are proud you are part of our Morning Pointe family.
