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Born in a small border town just outside the South Dakota border, I grew up in South Dakota. Living off of the land our family survived by raising circus animals and potatoes. Although many of the natives did not let their children attend school as they were needed to help earn a living, I was fortunate enough to attend school in a nearby village. Billed as the "Busiest Little City in Moody County" it was the PCB capital of the state. Animals exposed to the PCBs and radiation would grow to enormous proportions, including domesticated animals like cats. Consequently, many people found it in their best interests to get away as soon as possible (before cancer set in). I was no exception. As soon as I finished high school, I sold one of the family's mules, and used the money to book passage to the town of Brookings, home to South Dakota State University. Agreeing to become an indentured servant to a wealthy family, I soon had a way to pay tuition, and started my education in electrical engineering.
After a mere 48 months in college, I graduated from SDSU. Seeking employment, I hitched my way west, and ended up in the state of Washington. After securing lodging in a dry abandoned barn, I turned to the task of finding a steady job. The local nuclear power plant was looking for people to clean out their reactor. Having lived with carcinagens before, I was less wary of this task than some of the locals. I applied and got the job. It was easy, and I got to wear all of these neat radiation protection devices. But after only nine months, my hair and teeth began falling out. I took this as a bad sign and discontinued my work there.
Moving back to the midwest, I began to look for a new career. I was able to find a job even though we seemed to be having a recession. An engineering firm was looking for an engineer, and I got the job. They put me in an office, a year and a half passed. It didn't even seem like work, but they were really happy with what I had done for them. However, I grew weary of water and wastewater plant control systems, and decided change was in order.
I decided to go back to college, this time to Iowa State University. I moved to Ames, Iowa in 1995 and took enough classes to get a masters degree in December of 1996. Not smart enough to quit while I was ahead, I stayed to take Ph.D. classes. After becoming Dr. Richter (how do these things happen?!!) in December of 1998, the Electrical and Computer Engineering department decided the real world might not be ready for me yet. So they put me in an office and piled papers on my desk, which is where I stayed for 13 months.
Eventually I had to get out of Iowa. Zig-zagging so they wouldn't be able to follow my trail, I moved to Bellevue, WA. I eventually assumed the life of a Power Systems Engineer at Areva (then Alstom). After five years, in leiu of a casio calculator watch, they bestowed on me a snowless snow globe with my name on it.
