After Robert Rines founded Franklin Pierce Law Center, he became a father figure to his students, mentoring those studying intellectual property. And periodically, he would entertain them with presentations on his passion - his search for the Loch Ness monster.

Rines, an inventor, musician, patent lawyer, veteran, and founder of Franklin Pierce Law Center and the Academy of Applied Science, died Sunday morning of heart failure at his home in Boston. Rines, 87, is survived by his wife, two sons, a daughter and a stepdaughter. A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf.

He was a man who believed he could do anything. And, with the exception of finding a monster called Nessie, he generally could.

"He never saw something that he couldn't tackle or have other people tackle," said his wife, Joanne Hayes-Rines. "He (would say), 'What do you mean you don't know how to do it? Figure it out.' "

Born innovator

Rines was born in Boston and grew up in Brookline, Mass. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1942, but he missed his graduation ceremony because he was serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a radar officer.

Rines had been an innovator since age 6, when he asked his father why he needed to carry a pocketknife, fork, spoon and scissors when they could all be combined into one, according to a biography provided by Franklin Pierce Law Center. Rines's father, a patent attorney, taught his young son to research patents, and they discovered that a similar idea had already been patented.

In the Army, Rines invented a technique that was essential to building the Army's secret microwave early warning system. After the war, he worked at the U.S. Patent Office while earning a law degree from Georgetown University. He then joined his father's Boston law firm. He completed his Ph.D. at Chiao Tung University in Taiwan while working as a consultant for Taiwan's developing patent system, according to the law center.

In 1963, Rines founded the Concord-based Academy of Applied Science, a nonprofit aimed at encouraging invention and scientific achievement. When Kate Trojano, business administrator at the academy, started working there 20 years ago, the academy was based in a small, old building near Franklin Pierce Law Center.

"It started very small, and it's blossomed," Trojano said.

The academy moved to a larger building on Warren Street. It expanded nationally, and it now offers enrichment science programs to more than 12,000 elementary and high school students each year.

Ten years later, Rines started Franklin Pierce Law Center, a law school with a focus on intellectual property. At the time, there were almost no schools with more than a couple of classes in intellectual property law, said Jennifer Tegfeldt, an intellectual property lawyer with Genzyme who graduated from the law center in 1985.

Rines brought in practicing attorneys to teach students to pursue patent applications. He created a board of trustees that included not just lawyers, but also scientists and engineers. Today, the school is regularly ranked among the country's best law schools for intellectual property.

"Businesses and companies around the globe have benefited from that intellectual property specialty, which was well ahead of the curve," said Sherry Young, president of the law firm Rath, Young & Pignatelli, who graduated from Franklin Pierce Law Center in 1985.

As president of the law center, Rines was actively involved with the intellectual property students, Tegfeldt said. He counseled students individually and challenged them to be creative. Tegfeldt once approached him and suggested creating a relationship between the law students and the American Bar Association. Rines supported the idea and helped create a liaison position that continues to this day. But, Tegfeldt said, in his usual fashion, he empowered his students to do the work: "He'd say, 'This is my advice. Now what are you going to do with it?' " she said.

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