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Today's Featured Biography

 
Richard Ruffing

In the summer of 1973 I got a job with the Bureau of Land Management in Shoshone and worked there for six summers as a fire tanker crew boss. That job, and the wonderful, inclusive people I worked with, taught me the importance of being part of a team.

A D- in differential equations in my junior year at Whitman College and a recruiter from out east led to an abrupt change in my education. I transferred to Columbia University in the middle of NYC. With the help of a brilliant Malaysian friend who had also transferred there from Whitman (he helped me with the math; I helped him write the papers) I managed to graduate in 1978 with degrees in physics and math from Whitman and mining engineering from Columbia. I interviewed with two companies Shell Oil and someplace I had never heard of called Consolation Coal Company. Believing that I had badly failed both interviews (alcohol was involved), I applied and got accepted to Columbia School of Business and my future wife Ami was admitted to Columbia 's masters program in microbiology. An offer from Consol instantly changed those plans. I worked one more summer (1978) at fire camp because I loved the job. Ami and I got married that September.

Our "honeymoon" was driving to Pinckneyville, Illinois in my 1968 Cutlass and $500 cash we had saved up. I started working for Consol one week later as assistant mine engineer at Burning Star #3 mine. I was promoted to mine engineer in a few months. My wife soon joined Consol too as an Environmental/Permitter. We bought our first ever color TV (used) from the furniture store in Pinkneyville. One of my Wife's best/worst stories from back then was about me sitting in front of that TV in my undies, eating cereal and watching Saturday morning cartoons; she figured she had made a terrible mistake marrying me.

I worked for Consol for 25 years in engineering management, 15 years at surface mines and 10 years underground (850 feet). I was laid off in 2003 when Consol left Illinois. I spent 2004 "looking for a job" (at Ami's request) but had ample free time to discover the pleasures of the modern internet trivia chat rooms.

I took a job as an underground surveyor for the American Coal Company in the spring of 2005. It was not pleasant there, so after six months I returned to engineering management, this time for Peabody Energy, I drove to and from the Cottage Grove Mine 70 miles each way, working 11 or 12 hour shifts, five days a week for 10 years. I can barely remember. So in summary, I worked for nine coal companies/corporations, in 7 seams of coal in six southern Illinois counties. Ami left Consol after 17 years and worked for Southern Illinois University department of chemistry. She completed her PhD there, so at least one of us made something of themselves. She retired this spring.

One of my career duties had been acting as liason to state and federal mine inspectors. I became good friends with most of them and as a result of that interaction I now work for the state of Illinois as an Environmental Protection Engineer.

We bought a small farm on a dead end road in the middle of nowhere and have lived there since 1980. My Bestie Wife gave us 5 beautiful children. Very sadly, we lost a son in infancy. We bought a much larger farm at the beginning of COVID, hoping our grand kids have more room to roam.

That's about it for my bio. I never consciously made a decision about what I wanted to be when I grew up, but I could not have asked for more.I have enjoyed a lucky, wonderful life and a loving cohesive family. I am definitely looking forward to retirement and catching up on traveling and beach time.

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