Dick Risk of South Pasadena, Florida (email), serves on the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary’s National Staff as director of the Recreational Boating Safety Outreach “B” Directorate (DIR-B).

He previously served as division chief for RBS Outreach Liaison, branch chief for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Liaison (BC-BLA), an assistant district staff officer for publications (ADSO-PB), District 7, as senior editor of the Breeze quarterly magazine, and publications staff officer for his flotilla (FSO-PB).

He holds a bachelor of arts in Radio-Television from Oklahoma State University (distinguished military graduate) and a juris doctorate from the University of Tulsa College of Law (Dean’s Honor Roll, Phi Delta Phi honor society, Tulsa Law Journal), with graduate work at Boston University’s School of Public Communications, TU’s College of Business Administration and in Public Administration at the University of Oklahoma.

In 1981, he was appointed by the Reagan Administration to head the Southwestern Power Administration, a bureau level agency of the U.S. Department of Energy, to market hydroelectricity generated from 26 locks and dams built and operated by the Corps of Engineers in a six-state region. He reported to the undersecretary of the Department of Energy. With the title of administrator, his position in the Senior Executive Service was equivalent in federal rank to a deputy assistant secretary or a three-star military officer (vice admiral). He testified before congressional committees.

Dick had been an active duty U.S. Air Force information staff officer during the Vietnam era, including service as chief of the Public Affairs Editorial Branch of the Strategic Air Command, with headquarters near Omaha, where he produced a weekly press service package that went out worldwide to some 100 base newspaper editors, and made films for internal audiences. In early 1968, while at SAC headquarters, he served as a public affairs duty officer on the command’s underground battle staff that responded simultaneously to the crash in foreign territory of a B-52 carrying a nuclear weapon while deploying additional aircraft to Southeast Asia in answer to the capture of the USN Pueblo by the North Korean military and providing airpower to aid embattled Marine and Army ground troops during the infamous Tet Offensive in Vietnam.

He was the plans and projects branch chief in the Public Affairs directorate of the unified Alaskan Command, writing the public affairs annex to the joint war plan and for field training exercises. He was the operations officer and later commander of the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service network in Thailand (which received the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Combat “V” Device and the Department of Defense Thomas Jefferson Award for best radio documentary); a base information officer overseeing the production of a weekly newspaper (judged first place in the Air Training Command); the task force information officer for the first deployment to Guam of B-52 bombers and KC-135 aerial refueling tankers to the Vietnam conflict in 1965; and in 1968-70 a general’s aide in the 3rd Air Division headquarters on Guam, which directed all bomber and tanker operations in Southeast Asia. He also served tours on Okinawa and in Texas. His decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters, and several campaign medals, including the Vietnam Service Medal with four stars, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and National Defense Service Medal.

He worked with the White House advance party when President Nixon pronounced the Guam Doctrine in 1969, and coordinated the worldwide television coverage of the historic 1971 meeting in Alaska between President Nixon and Emperor of Japan Hirohito. When President Nixon spent the night in Anchorage, returning from his historic 1972 trip to China, he escorted the White House press secretary and senior White House correspondents who rode with the president on Air Force One. President Nixon sent him a thank you letter.

In civilian life, he was a public affairs manager for two major energy companies in Tulsa, Oklahoma, including an assignment to handle public relations for a nuclear power construction project at a time when the country was deeply divided and very vocal on this issue. He was also local accreditation chair for the Public Relations Society of America. As a loaned executive, he organized and led a statewide, broad-based nonprofit coalition to advocate energy development, winning national acclaim.

As a community volunteer, he has served in leadership positions of several charitable organizations. Most notably, he formed a foundation to provide financial and mentoring support to Will Rogers High School in Tulsa Oklahoma, a college-preparatory lottery school built in the Great Depression era and named to the National Register of Historic Places. The foundation has donated nearly $100,000 since its formation in 2010.

At age 60, he became an attorney and then initiated a class action against a major insurance company, alleging fraud and racketeering on behalf of nearly 22,000 claimants. The class litigation team that eventually included four law firms successfully negotiated a settlement of $72.5 million. He has published many peer-reviewed articles, has testified before the Internal Revenue Service and is nationally known for his expertise in structured settlements and qualified settlement funds. The University of Tulsa named the Richard B. Risk Practicum Endowment Fund in his honor, and he is in the Will Rogers High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma) Hall of Fame.

Dick has sung in the chorus of 29 operas with Tulsa Opera, a professional company, as well as some musical comedy roles, and has performed with the Kingston Trio. He also wrote for and performed for 25 years in the Tulsa Press Club’s annual political roast, the Gridiron. He enjoys travel, music, genealogy, karaoke, photography and video production. He and his wife, Carroll, have two adult children and two grandchildren. They live along Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway at Boca Ciega Bay, where they own a 31-foot Carver twin diesel cabin cruiser, Flight Risk, and a 25-foot Chaparral powerboat, Risky Business. Dick is boat crew, telecommunications operator, vessel examiner, instructor and public affairs certified.