John W. Rieke received his BSEE in 1939 and remained at Purdue for graduate work. Immediately upon completion of his master's degree in 1940, he joined the Bell Telephone Laboratory in Indianapolis as a member of the technical staff concerned with broad-band transmission systems. He was promoted to supervisor of the Transmission Systems Development Department in 1951 and became supervisor of television systems in 1952.

In 1953 he was given the responsibility for directing the development of the gas diode electronic switching network for Bell's new Electronic Central Office. He became head of Switching Systems Development Engineering in 1956; in 1959, he was named director of power development with the charge of developing power facilities for the Bell System. From 1963 until his retirement in the mid-seventies, he was director of the Bell Telephone Laboratory in Indianapolis.

Rieke holds 22 patents for communications related inventions including switching networks and signal generating and modulating devices. He was named a Purdue Distinguished Engineering Alumnus in 1967.