Jack Rickard

Jack Rickard, born in Kansas, is an artist, athlete, poet, Marine Corps veteran, and past high school teacher of American history with a Ph.D. in adult education and history from Arizona State University. A fourth generation westerner, Rickard brings together a myriad of experiences of growing up in the West. As a teenager he hitchhiked across the West and followed the wheat harvest driving a truck and combine from Texas to Montana. He is the author of Late Night Lanterns and Change in the Weather, two books of poetry and is a recipient of a Pablo Neruda prize for his poetry which was a regular feature of the Reno County Kansas New Times in the 1990's. He is the author of Moonblindness and the Paleness of Dust: A Memory of a Last Frontier, Volume 1 of the Great Plains Trilogy. In 2011 he was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame, College of Emporia, Kansas, and in 2013 he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the college for his accomplishments in literature, art, and education.