Project Director, Education and Training
Richard (center) completed his primary education in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he then joined the Naval Reserve and served on active duty following graduation from high school. Following naval service, he then pursued studies in Miami, Florida; Chattanooga, Tennessee and Jacksonville, Florida. He holds a Masters and Doctorate in Communications and Counseling from Luther Rice College and Seminary.
He married Ruthie in May 1967, and has two grown children, Andrew and Theresa.
In 1974 he applied for, and was directly commissioned, a U.S. Army Chaplain. His assignments included the 82nd Airborne Division, the 1st Armored Division in Bamberg, Germany and the 2nd Infantry Training Brigade at Ft. Benning, Georgia. He was then selected for postgraduate training and a full-year clinical residency program at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.
Following successful completion of the program, he was assigned to Moncrief Army Hospital, Ft. Jackson, South Carolina as Chief of Pastoral Care.
In March of 1987, Richard was medically retired after over 14 years in the Army due to injuries suffered in a parachuting accident while in the 82nd Airborne Division.
Richard is Director, Educational Programs for Olive Branch International, an NGO that focuses on the international military community and is a USAID certified organization.
Richard was a primary presenter on suicide prevention and depression in the Russian-American Military Humanitarian Conference in Moscow in April of 1993. Since then, he has participated in numerous military conferences in Russia, Ukraine, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Europe and Eastern Europe and Rwanda with a focus on identifying soldier problems, suicide prevention and crisis intervention.
He is a member of the American Association of Suicidology, the International Association of Suicide Prevention and is a certified trainer in Pastoral Crisis Intervention with the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. He was a major contributor to a new U.S. Army manual on suicide prevention in July of 2000.
Additionally, he is co-author of two manuals and four booklets on suicide prevention in the Russian language for use in Russia and the Ukraine. A chapter on “Military Suicide Prevention” that he co-authored with Professor Rozanoff of Ukraine and Dr. Lars Mellum, psychiatrist and suicide researcher at the University of Oslo, Norway as part of a major University text book, will be published by Oxford Press in 2008 for use throughout Great Britain.
He is working with the Ministry of Defense in Sri Lanka in post-tsunami crisis intervention, basic leadership counseling and other educational programs to their Army and Air Force personnel and staff academies. In 2008, he has also focused on developing a Chaplain Training Track for Kiev Seminary in Kiev, Ukraine as well as teaching and training counselors in Mongolia for work with their military.
Dick and his wife Ruthie make their home in Clearwater, Florida.
