Robert Campbell Reeve - Childhood

Childhood

Bob Reeve was born in Waunakee, Wisconsin on March 27, 1902. He was one of twins, his brother was Richard. Their parents were Hubert and Mae Reeve. Mae died in 1904, and their father remarried, leaving the boys to fend for themselves. Bob and Richard went their separate ways early in life. Bob was fascinated by aviation from an early age, and studied all he could on the subject. He enlisted in the US Army aged 15 in 1917. Discharged from the Army at the end of the war, Bob had reached the rank of sergeant. He wanted to re-enlist, but his father was against this so Bob returned to school, but dropped out after a few months and went to San Francisco. From there he got passage as an ordinary seaman to Shanghai, where he took a job in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, serving on the Yangtze and Taku rivers. In 1921, Bob was working in Vladivostok, USSR, but returned home as a result of his father's pleading.

Bob finished high school, and then entered the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1922, his brother already being there. A picture of the aviator Carl Ben Eielson was on the wall at the fraternity house, this inspired Bob Reeve, George Gardner, Monk MacKinnon and Ora McMurray to skip classes to spend time at Madison airfield, where Cash Chamberlain had a Curtiss Jenny. Six months short of graduation, all four were expelled from the university. This pushed them further into aviation, with Gardner and MacKinnon becoming President and Vice-President respectively of Northwest Airlines.