Robert Hart - 1989
MHS 1937 Graduate
Captain Robert E. Hart, Class of 1937, was chosen for the Minerva High School Alumni Hall of Fame by the Minerva High School Advisory Committee. He attended Culver Military Academy, studied business and science at Case Western Reserve University, studied journalism at Kent State University, and studied mathematics, sciences, seamanship and ordinance at Northwestern University and U. S. Midshipman School.
He served during World War II as a junior and then a commanding officer. He was Minerva's senior military officer on active duty during World War II and the Korean War. He has served as a naval aide and a marketing and public relations officer.
Hart retired from the U. S. Navy in 1961 with the rank of Captain following 20 years of active service. He then joined the American Export Lines (AEL) in New York City as executive assistant to the president and the chief executive officer. At AEL he was in charge of marketing, public relations, and advertising for the company's 41 freighters and their three luxury cruise liners. In 1968 he joined the Marine Index Bureau and served as president and chief operating officer from 1970 to January 1989 when he resigned.
He was a professor of marketing at Mount Union College from 1988 until 1994. In 1995 he became director of marine operation, for SWR (a chemical manufacturing company) in Lansing, Michigan.
Hart belongs to many professional organizations and has received many awards and honors. Although he and Jane, his wife of 40 years, claim residence at their new home on their summer property in Ohio, they still maintain their apartment in New York where he maintains his business contacts and commutes monthly to New York City.
He is the son of Minerva's former Postmaster for 25 years, Charles A. Hart and his wife, Alma Mae Hart. He credits his mother, a 1908 graduated of the University of Cincinnati for all his life achievements.