The Rock of Raytheon: Rhoads Emphasizes Dedication and Determination

When Rebecca Rhoads was a teenager, she sang backup vocals in a band, and she loved it. Her father was an electrical engineer, and Rhoads, too, was interested in math and science, so her family encouraged her to stick with these fields. But she wanted to be a rock star. “You can imagine how relieved my parents were when that went bust and I stayed in college,” Rhoads says. “Thank goodness I stayed in math and I continued to turn in my homework.” Then she adds, with a laugh, “Our board teases me all the time: They tell me I am a rock star.”