Today's Featured Biography

 
Richard Hobbs

The best things in my life are my four children. I love them all. Oldest is Mariesa; artist and web guru/designer living on east coast. Next is son Ross, an Air Force pilot (B-1 bomber) soon to be living in Texas, has done a stint in Middle East "conflict." Twins, Ryder and Rhianna came along in 2002 (different mother; we divorced two years ago). My beloved girl died April 13, 2013 at age 10, a little over two years ago; her heart simply stopped. Ryder just turned 13 and is a very talented actor, singer, student and all around great kid. Jobs are just jobs. I'm a writer who had to go to work. Read on if you care about the job side of life.

Linkedin bio [MY PROFESSIONAL/WORK PROFILE, NOT PERSONAL--R.]
Richard is based in Seattle and brings to clients more than twenty-five years of experience as an archivist, historian, and records manager. He has created digital archives and provided archives and records management services to businesses, non-profits, state and local governments, the University of Washington, and the Government of Bahrain.

Among his publications are magazine and newspaper articles and six histories, including Charles J. Broughton, Letters to Family 1872-1919 (2012; ed.); The Broughtons of Dayton: Family & Business in the Northwest Heartland (2010); Frontier Bank: The First 25 Years (2008; co-author); Catastrophe to Triumph: Bridges of the Tacoma Narrows (2006); Spanning Washington: Historic Highway Bridges of the Evergreen State (2005; co-author); and The Cayton Legacy: An African American Family (2002).

The web site he wrote on the Tacoma Narrows Bridges history for Washington State’s Department of Transportation won awards in 2004 and 2005.

Richard Hobbs holds a Certificate in Archives & Records Administration from Western Washington University, an MA in History from Washington State University, and a PhD in History from the University of Washington.

Education
University of Washington 1985-1989
Ph. D. History


40th reunion bio
My best and greatest accomplishments are my children. I am happily married to the love of my life, Lynette Dickson. We have twins, Rhianna and Ryder (girl, boy), who are 3-1/2 years old (turn 4 in July). I am equally proud of an older son and daughter, Ross (23, at the Air Force Academy, graduating in June, then to flight school), and Mariesa (25, a commercial artist, married to a helicopter pilot).

I live on Whidbey Island, where I moved from Spokane in 2000. Lynette and I built a housebarn and married. Our family of four here shares home with six horses, plus a dog, and a couple cats. Yes, the cliche is true for me- I am a "late bloomer." After high school, I attended WSU in Pullman, where I almost died from engineering and math classes. but fled happily into history. After a few years and couple of degrees, I moved on to the UW in Seattle, where I Jived for about 15 years, both attending and working at the UW. I found employment in what now is called "public history," working with historical records. I managed the UW Archives, then managed the University 's Records Management Program and Public Records Office.

In 1986 I got an opportunity to work overseas. I served as an advisor-consultant to the Government of Bahrain in Records and Archives Management, 1986-89. Back in the U.S., I found work with the Washington State Archives as Manager of the Eastern Regional Archives branch, located at E.W.U. in Cheney. I feel fortunate to work from home as a consultant-historian. This gives me time to be an equal parent in the twins' lives. I've been doing research and writing, exactly what I always wanted to do. The same year that the twins were born. 2002, my first book was published, The Cayton Legacy: An African American Family. It was a tremendous adventure, exploring deeply my life-long interests in families and cultural/racial relations. A consulting job led to the next book (co-authored) , Spanning Washington: Historic Highway Bridges of the Evergreen State, published in June 2005. My latest effort will be published in the Fall of 2006 by WSU Press, Catastrophe to Triumph: Bridges of the Tacoma Narrows.

Besides spending time with the family and pounding out words on a keyboard, I ride a horse often, jog, enjoy friends, and finally have found the courage to get my own band together.

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