Rick is Co-Founder and Director of Brother-to-Brother Ministries. He is a highly decorated Vietnam veteran and retired Air Force officer.
His awards and decorations include the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart, the Air Medal with two oak-leaf clusters, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Bronze Star. Rick has lived in Ohio, California, and Taiwan, and he and his family have lived in California, Spain, Arkansas, Italy (twice), the Philippines, and Colorado. Rick and his wife Karen were married in the Catholic Church at Clark Air Base, Republic of the Philippines in 1975. He came into full communion with the Catholic Church in 1982 at Immaculate Conception Parish in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Since that time, Rick has been actively involved with Catholic parishes all around the world. He joined the Cursillo Movement in 1987 in the Philippines and also founded and led a renewal group in the Philippines from 1987-89. Rick has been involved with men’s small group Bible studies for many years and has facilitated couples’ Bible studies. After retiring from the Air Force in 1993, Rick and his family settled in Colorado Springs, Colorado where he entered the financial services industry and felt like a triangular peg trying to fit into a round hole. After the death of his youngest son, Kevin, in June 2004, he began accompanying men one-on-one on their faith journeys on a part-time basis. By early 2007, Rick recognized that God was calling him to give his life and energies to forming men in their faith. Consequently, in June 2007, he and Dennis Speer founded Brother-to-Brother Ministries; Bob Tomlinson subsequently joined them in July 2007. In January 2008, he left the financial services industry for good, and as a good friend told him, “You now a round peg in a round hole.”
Rick and Bob Tomlinson have presented their joint testimony, The Power of Forgiveness, at Catholic men’s conferences and parishes in Colorado and New Mexico. They have appeared on Catholic Answers Live and The Good Fight on EWTN Radio, and on Renewal Ministries’ The Choices We Face on EWTN Television. Additionally, they have twice appeared on The Catholic Channel’s Seize the Day. Rick has also appeared on local Catholic radio stations in the Archdiocese of Denver (KPIO), the Diocese of Colorado Springs and the Diocese of Pueblo (KFEL) in Colorado, and the Archdiocese of Mobile (WNGL) in Alabama. Brother-to-Brother Ministries offers workshops for Catholic men which include the topics Active Christian Leadership, The Importance of Forgiveness, and One-to-One Mentoring. Rick and Dennis Speer were part of a team of dedicated Catholic men who found and hosted the Rocky Mountain Catholic Men’s Conferences in Colorado Springs from 2007 to 2012. Currently, Rick mentors eight Catholic men from across the United States and internationally who are from various ethnic and racial backgrounds.
He also offers seminars on Catholic Apologetics, Dr. Brant Pitre’s Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, Dr. John Bergsma’s Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Book of Revelation to parishes in Colorado. Rick and Karen also wrote an article about their son Kevin which was published in the last issue of Patrick Madrid’s Envoy magazine in 2012. Among his three college degrees, Rick holds a Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry from Aquinas Institute of Theology. Rick and his wife, Karen, have been married for over 40 years. They have four children, Becca, Kimberly, Ryan, and Kevin, and three granddaughters, Ella, Paige, and Everly.
