University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Grainger College of Engineering

Robert N. Rasmus

[title]
To Robert N. Rasmus, engineer, manager, industrialist, for his leadership in the implementation of outstanding techniques of management in a large corporation.

President and Chief Executiv Officer, Masonite Corporation, Chicago, Illinois

  • BS, General Engineering, 1948

After receiving a masters’ degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University in 1949, Mr. Rasmus joined the statistical quality control department of Johnson and Johnson. He later joined Armour and Company in Chicago and then Lowell Bleecher Company in St. Louis. In 1957 he was appointed assistant to the vice president for manufacturing of Masonite Corporation. Since that time he has held many positions with Masonite; he became president and chief executive officer in 1977.

Mr. Rasmus’s managerial skills area evidenced by his conversion of the company from a single product line of hardboard to a multifaceted wood products corporation which has almost doubled its sales volume since 1975. Reorganization within the company has enabled the establishment of diversified divisions each having its own central authority for marketing and expanding product lines to encompass a large range of products. The new product lines have in recent years accounted for approximately one-half of the company’s sales volume. Mr. Rasmus is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and has served on the board of directors of several companies.

Current as of 1981.