Robert Victor Kieronski

Robert Victor Kieronski of Newport, an award-winning artist, inventor and electronics engineer with an ever-curious mind and a whimsical sense of humor, died in Hope Hospice Center in Providence on September 2, 2025 at the age of 84.

With his characteristic resilience and determination, Robert had dealt with renal disease and other complex medical issues in recent years. Through his illnesses, his wife Susan was his dedicated caregiver.

Robert was born in Philadelphia, the son of Stanley C. Kieronski and Henrietta (Miller) Kieronski.

Robert and Susan, who came to RI to take a position at Rhode Island School of Design, met at an event sponsored by the Boston Beanstalks Tall Club. Two years later, in 1989, they were wed at the Norman Bird Sanctuary by the minister of Channing Memorial Church. Over their 36 years of marriage, they shared a keen interest in art, music, and ideas. They both had a love of nature, humor, and funny little cats, and enjoyed working together in educational programming, creating unique programs for Channing's Learning Center.

Robert graduated from Lehigh University in 1962 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He earned a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology while employed at Bell Telephone Laboratories.

One of Robert's richest memories, from the late 60's, was of his participation in the now historic "Nine Evenings of Theater and Engineering". He and other young engineers from Bell Labs ventured into the Avant Garde, collaborating with a band of eccentric New York artists to create a series of "happenings". His contribution was the design of the Vochrome, a pioneering device that translated analog audio into electronic signals.

After some time in Boston working for ARP Instruments, an experimental music synthesizer startup, Robert moved to Newport in 1974 to work at the Naval Underseas Warfare Center (NUWC). Once settled, he launched a successful long-term side project of buying and restoring properties.

Robert took an early retirement from NUWC to pursue his real estate interests and his passion for art and technology. In the years since retirement, Robert created ambitious electronic sculptures, kinetic light installations, and quirky presentations and art pieces based around animated historic figures.

Robert's last completed creation, a digitally controlled pinball game recreating the Urey-Miller experiment in chemical synthesis from 1952, exemplifies his lifelong commitment to blending science, philosophy, and art. The game was exhibited at the NASA Astrobiology Conference in Providence in 2024 and at the Chicago Pinball Expo in 2023. An earlier version of the work, which he called the "Create Life Pinball Machine," won First Place in Three-Dimensional Art at the Newport Annual Members' Juried Exhibition in 2011, and The First Place Award at a Steampunk Exhibit at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation in 2010.

Using unique laminated optical materials, working in the depths of what he called his "secret [basement] lab," Kieronski created wall-mounted pieces which could be transformed with projected light. The largest version of these "Lumion" pieces - "Phototonic Evolution in Deep Time II" - lit up the main front window of the De Cordova Museum in Massachusetts in 2002 as a part of the Boston Cyberfest.

In other years with the Cyberfest, Kieronski exhibited his memorable "Moolacto Fountain" and "Home Sweet Screen", which featured a stealthy squirting robot, at the Attleboro Center for the Arts.

Kieronski's projected artwork provided a striking background for two dances in the program "Surrender", by the Island Moving Company, in 2003.

In a departure from his artwork, Robert developed a unique Buckminster Fuller-inspired watercraft, "Rowing Needles", on which he held 4 patents. Although the boat was not a commercial success, good times were had, as Bob and his late friend Bill Fowler enthusiastically participated in rowing regattas all over New England.

Robert also mastered an unconventional form of electronic animation, and produced a sculptural installation, framed as a fortune telling kiosk, featuring the character of Mamie Fish, a Gilded Age Newport socialite. Mamie ("Social Advisor") won 1st prize in Mixed Media in the Newport Art Museum Juried Show in 2016. A more recent animated video exhibit of scientist competitors is now on exhibit at the New England Steam and Wireless Museum.

Bob was a board member of the Rhode Island Computer Museum, a growing and innovative organization that he enthusiastically supported.

He had a keen interest in the future of our energy resources. After attending numerous scientific conferences on the subject with his friend and colleague Mike Armenia, he helped Mike advocate, to community groups throughout Rhode Island, for revisiting the idea of nuclear energy through Thorium.

His achievements began early. In junior high school, Bob won the all-Philadelphia science fair with his decimal to binary converter. He was an avid lifelong self-educator, and tenacious in pursuit of his ideas. Bob's boyhood idol was Thomas Edison, and Bob believed in the inventor's dictate that "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

Robert Kieronski is survived by his beloved wife Susan, extended related family, his Channing Church family, and many friends and colleagues.

The family is grateful to Innovative Renal Care and Visiting Nurses Home Care and Hospice for their excellent care and support during Bob's last two years.

A service to celebrate the life of Robert Kieronski, conducted by Rev. Althea Smith, will be held at Channing Memorial Church in Newport at 10:30 AM on Saturday, October 18. A reception will follow at the Newport Art Museum. In lieu of flowers, friends might consider a contribution to Channing Memorial Church, the Newport Art Museum, or to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).