Rich Wilson
Rich grew up in Boston. He received an A.B. Degree in Mathematics from Harvard College, an S.M. Degree in Interdisciplinary Science from MIT and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Rich has worked as a math teacher in Boston, a defense analyst in Washington, DC, and as technical consultant on power/desalination plants in Saudi Arabia. He was also a successful investor in six entertainment companies in Massachusetts.
Rich served six years on the Board of Trustees of Sea Education Association and nine years on the Board of The School for Field Studies, both hands-on college-level science programs, and as an Overseer of the Boston Museum of Science. A severe asthmatic, he has served on the Board of the American Lung Association of Boston, and as Honorary Chairman of the ALA's Christmas Seals campaign in 1993.
In 1980, Rich became the youngest Overall Winner of the prestigious Newport to Bermuda Race skippering Holger Danske. In 1988 he won his class sailing the 35-foot trimaran Curtana in the Carlsberg Singlehanded Transatlantic Race: Plymouth, UK to Newport, USA, 3,000 miles, upwind and alone, across the North Atlantic Ocean.
Believing that an ocean voyage, with its continual excitement and vast breadth of content, would make an ideal event from which to create a 'learning adventure', Rich created the project Ocean Challenge in 1990. He and one shipmate would tackle the clipper ship record set by Northern Light in 1853 during the Gold Rush from San Francisco to Boston by way of treacherous Cape Horn. They would be linked by newsletter and radiotelephone to schools during the 15,000 mile non-stop voyage.
Departing October 22, 1990, all went according to plan until they reached Cape Horn. There, driving under bare poles for 3 days in seas that built to 65', the trimaran Great American finally capsized on Thanksgiving Day 400 miles short of the Horn. An hour later, in a first in recorded maritime history, the massive trimaran was thrown upright by a mountainous sea. Seventeen hours later, in a dramatic midnight rescue, the giant containership New Zealand Pacific found the awash trimaran, and in a breathtaking display of seamanship, came alongside with seas still running 45'-50', giving Rich and Steve Pettengill a chance to leap for a ladder draped down the side of the ship for them.
Returning to Boston after an 18 day voyage aboard NZP to Holland, Rich visited a dozen schools that had participated in the 'learning adventure'. The effect of bringing the real world into classroom learning was so stunningly effective, that Rich decided to try for the record again.
In 1993, Great American II set out from San Francisco with Rich and Bill Biewenga aboard. The 'learning adventure' was now an interactive feature on Prodigy, and a 12-part weekly series written aboard ship and published by 12 major daily newspapers (L.A. Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, etc.). Prodigy reported "spectacular success", and each Newspaper In Education program was oversubscribed by teachers. GAII successfully rounded the Horn, arrived safely in Boston, broke the standing record, and reached 1/3 million schoolchildren. The "Ocean Challenge" concept was proven.
sitesALIVE! evolved from that original idea: to excite, engage, and teach.
Rich keeps in shape for future ocean voyages by swimming and running. He has completed the Boston Marathon 4 times.