Robert Dwayne Gruss

Robert Dwayne Gruss (born June 25, 1955) is a bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. He has served as the eighth bishop of the Diocese of Rapid City in the state of South Dakota since 2011.

Robert Gruss was born in Texarkana, Arkansas. He has an associate degree from Madison Area Technical College in Madison, Wisconsin. He earned his commercial pilot's license from the Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and worked as a charter pilot, flight instructor and corporate pilot.

Gruss began his studies for the priesthood at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa where he earned a bachelor's degree in theology in 1990. He earned a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree in 1993 and Master in Spiritual Theology in 1994 from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome, Italy. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Davenport by Bishop William Edwin Franklin at Sacred Heart Cathedral on July 2, 1994.

After ordination Father Gruss served as curate of St. Paul the Apostle parish in Davenport from 1994–1997. He served as curate for three parshes in central Iowa from 1997–1998; they include St. Anthony Parish in Knoxville, Iowa, Sacred Heart Parish in Melcher, Iowa and St. Mary Parish in Pella, Iowa. He then served as the pastor in Pella from 1999–2004. He was the diocesan vocations director from 2004–2007 and diocesan chancellor from 2005–2007. Pope Benedict XVI named him a Chaplain of His Holiness, with the title Monsignor, in August 2007. Msgr. Gruss served as the vice-rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome from 2007–2010. From 2010–2011 he served as pastor and rector of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport.

Msgr. Gruss was named the bishop of Rapid City by Pope Benedict on May 26, 2011. His episcopal consecration took place on July 28, 2011 at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City, South Dakota. Archbishop John Clayton Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis was the consecrating bishop. Bishops Martin John Amos of Davenport and Samuel Joseph Aquila of Fargo were the co-consecrators.