Richard Rudolph, Ph. D. Richard is an educator, organic farmer, activist, and Chairman of the Rail Users' Network. He is also a board member of the Green Energy Consumer Alliance and Chairman of the Green Energy Committee. With a Ph.D. in history and retired from the academy, he is involved in a wide variety of issues: community food security, farm to school initiatives, green energy, public power, customer-focused rail passenger service, and global environmental concerns. He has published numerous articles on these various issues and co-authored Power Struggle: The Hundred Year War of Electricity published by Harper & Row. He is currently a columnist for Passenger Train Journal.
Since 1996, he has farmed full time at Rippling Waters Organic Farm in Steep Falls, Maine and served as its first executive director from 2006-2013. Under his leadership this nonprofit farm built a state of the art solar greenhouse at the Bonny Eagle Middle School, established school gardens at 4 elementary schools in the MSAD 6 school district and gardens at three senior housing sites in Cumberland County. Now retired, he is currently focusing more of his time on policy questions related to community food security, energy and passenger rail issues, and is a co-producer of a half-hour public affairs program at WMPG, the University of Southern Maine’s radio station. Richard has earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in history from the University of Connecticut.
Richard also has a lifelong interest in passenger rail issues, but it wasn’t until he retired in 1996 as an academic dean at the University of Massachusetts, Boston that he has been able to focus his attention on this work. He was a founding member of Amtrak’s Customer Service Committee at the national level serving as Vice-Chair and Chair, 1997-2001 and is currently the Chairman of the Rail Users’ Network, a national organization that serves as a voice for intercity, regional/commuter, and transit rail passengers, rail advocates and official rail advisory committees in the United States, He also serves on the board of directors of the Maine Rail Group, a non-profit organization working to enhance and expand passenger rail in Maine and serves on the board of directors of PTSI Transportation and is a Senior Advisor for Railway Customer Service.
Since 1996, he has farmed full time at Rippling Waters Organic Farm in Steep Falls, Maine and served as its first executive director from 2006-2013. Under his leadership this nonprofit farm built a state of the art solar greenhouse at the Bonny Eagle Middle School, established school gardens at 4 elementary schools in the MSAD 6 school district and gardens at three senior housing sites in Cumberland County. Now retired, he is currently focusing more of his time on policy questions related to community food security, energy and passenger rail issues, and is a co-producer of a half-hour public affairs program at WMPG, the University of Southern Maine’s radio station. Richard has earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in history from the University of Connecticut.
Richard also has a lifelong interest in passenger rail issues, but it wasn’t until he retired in 1996 as an academic dean at the University of Massachusetts, Boston that he has been able to focus his attention on this work. He was a founding member of Amtrak’s Customer Service Committee at the national level serving as Vice-Chair and Chair, 1997-2001 and is currently the Chairman of the Rail Users’ Network, a national organization that serves as a voice for intercity, regional/commuter, and transit rail passengers, rail advocates and official rail advisory committees in the United States, He also serves on the board of directors of the Maine Rail Group, a non-profit organization working to enhance and expand passenger rail in Maine and serves on the board of directors of PTSI Transportation and is a Senior Advisor for Railway Customer Service.