By Alan D. Fischer
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

As a child, Bob Breault considered entering the priesthood. His life's path took a more scientific bent, but he ended up as an evangelist anyway.

He spreads the Optics Valley gospel.

Chris Richards / Staff Bob Breault founder of Breault Research Organization Inc., and co-chair of the Arizona Optics Industry Association.

Breault spends countless hours making presentations and attending meetings, promoting the optics industry here and around the world. During 1999 his out-of-state travel averaged three weeks per month.

All the while, he is busy with his own company - Breault Research Organization Inc. - an industry-leading optical software firm he launched in 1979 after earning a doctorate from the University of Arizona Optical Sciences Center.

Breault (sounds like Bro) sees optics - a high-paying, clean, rapidly growing industry - as a way to boost the local economy and offer Tucsonans better jobs.

"He's a man on a mission," said Tim Kanavel of the Arizona Department of Commerce.

He focuses on Tucson - and beyond.

Path clear at age 14

"He has very much a global viewpoint," said Dick Powell, president of the Optical Society of America and a former director of the Optical Sciences Center. "He's very much pushing Tucson as Optics Valley, but he tries very much to help anyone interested in optics, to help the field in optics."

As a 14-year-old admiring the night heavens from his bedroom window in Naugatuck, Conn., Bob Breault plotted his life's path: a mathematics degree, a graduate degree in astronomy, a stint as an Air Force fighter pilot - all to prepare him for a career as a space-based research scientist.

He had his future lined up three years before Russia launched the space race in 1957.

He hit all his goals but one. He twice applied for the astronaut training program but was turned down. After earning his doctorate in optics, he was invited to reapply. But he had launched Breault Research just two weeks earlier, and he chose to move forward with his scientific and business career.

Breault Research grew from a one-person operation to one that now employs 50 at 6400 E. Grant Road. It expanded from its founder's academic specialty area of stray-light analysis and suppression - essentially controlling stray light in optical devices - to include a wide array of optics areas, from automotive lighting systems to far-reaching exploration satellites and the Hubble Space Telescope.

Breault still focuses on stray-light analysis, something practiced each time someone goes outdoors and uses a hand to shade his or her eyes from sunlight. "The only thing is, I get tens of thousands of dollars, or hundreds of thousands of dollars, to do it," he said.

The company also works on defense projects, something Breault takes especially seriously because of his stint as an F-100 pilot in Vietnam, where his life depended on his equipment and skill to get him safely home following missions deep into enemy territory.

"I fully respect that it is not just a specification I am working on," he said. "What I am working on, somebody's life depends on this."

"A passion for clusters"

Breault, who co-chairs the Arizona Optics Industry Association, has zealously helped launch clusters in optics and other fields around the world.

He believes clusters - regional networks of business, education and government entities that come together to foster economic development for an industry - foster cooperation that helps participants achieve far more than they could alone.

"I have a passion for clusters," he said. "I've done it now in 19 countries and 17 states."

His first target was Florida, which had tried for years to organize its optics industry, he said. After a half-day of meetings, the cluster was rolling.

Not all were so easy.

After a long day trying to form a New Mexico cluster, Breault got serious: "I got up, I walked to the back of the room and I locked the doors. I said, 'We're in here until we elect a board of directors. Quit messing around and just do it.' In 15 minutes we had eight directors. Now we were under way."

The Green Berets of optics

Some people fear Breault's efforts to start clusters will take business from local companies.

But Breault believes the optics industry - projected to grow from $50 billion to $500 billion in 10 years - offers enough opportunity for everyone.

"We're still in our infancy. In 10 years you'll see us be one of the major industries of the world, much like the chip industry and the telecom industry," he said. "My attitude is, OK, it's not going to be a competition. I don't care if you make a million bucks or a billion bucks, as long as I can make twice as much."

With continued support from industry and government leaders, Tucson's optics industry can stay ahead, Breault said.

"We're the Green Berets of the optics community. We're better-trained, better-organized. We have the Optical Sciences Center. Since we are creating the brain power here, the world is envious of the resources we have. It's not unusual for our graduate students to want to stay in our area."

A 62-hour week

"Nurturing" is a word Bob Breault uses frequently.

In addition to helping launch industry clusters around the world, he has donated thousands of volunteer hours to youth sports, economic-development issues and education. He served on boards for the Greater Tucson Economic Council and Tucson Unified School District Crystal Apple award for his support of elementary education.

His typical 62-hour work week is divided like this: 50 percent spent on education and work-force development, mostly to aid the area's underemployed, 25 percent on cluster work, and the remaining 25 percent on Breault Research.

Still, he is a "gorilla inside. Most people think of me as a nice, kind, gentle type of person, but I'm about as aggressive an adversary as you can imagine. I just keep it inside."

Breault, who turns 60 this week, retains the sense of wonder he had as a 14-year-old who shot off homemade rockets.

"I'm still a young kid, still a pioneer beyond my age. There are new areas to explore," he said. "The pilot aspect of risk-taking is still there. It hasn't diminished much, to the dismay of some of my employees and people in the community."

The work never stops - but Breault said it's been worth it.

"My careers have been very, very fun. Packed with challenges, even with death-defying challenges in some cases," he said. "But it's been very satisfying - the people I've worked with and the projects I've gotten to do."

"I plan to work until two days after I die. For real."