Bob Cassilly
City Museum
St. Louis, MO USA
"I've always wanted to build a fantasy world…I figured, 'Well, what have I got to lose? I'm going to go forward and shake my fist at all this stuff and do what I want to do."
Career Roadmap
Bob's work combines: Art, Entrepreneurship, and Building Things
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Art/Art Studies, General
Fontbonne University
Graduate Degree
Art/Art Studies, General
Fontbonne University
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
As a restless child, his mom got him into sculpting and woodwork so he could channel out his energy.
2.
Went to college to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War; also constructed elaborate "backup plan," pretended to have narcolepsy.
3.
Always liked working around the rules, thinking outside of the box.
4.
When he was in school, he decided that his goal would be "to never have a job."
5.
Flipped houses until he had enough money to buy the huge empty lot where the museum now stands.
6.
Said the empty lot had "endless potential" but he didn't know what to do with it until he actually started building it.
7.
Felt depressed at times, built his "fantasy land" museum as a way to combat that; says his depression actually made him productive.
8.
Says "I needed to want what nobody else wanted and live the way nobody else wanted to live, and then I could be free."
