Rietz's college
education took a number of twists and turns, reflecting his broad interests
and inquisitive nature. He attended Columbia University, Harvard, and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. He studied medicine at the University of Maryland and
Johns Hopkins University and eventually earned an engineering degree from the
University of California at Berkeley. Amid his academic wandering he served
as an ambulance driver during World War I and as a private secretary for both
mining engineer John H. Hammond and Thomas A. Edison. A Rietz family anecdote
tells of how the young Rietz, by scoring one of the highest marks on the famous
inventor's first comprehensive IQ tests, secured his position with Edison.
In
1928 , Rietz married Elsie. Together they had two daughters,
Betsy and Sandra. Soon after their marriage, they returned to California. After
a short stint in Los Angeles, where he worked as a cameraman for director D.W.
Griffith, they again settled in the San Francisco Bay area.
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