Richard DuRose

Richard DuRose was a trial lawyer with Foley & Lardner law firm representing corporations until the age of seventy when he retired and moved to Western North Carolina. Shortly after he published an article in the Smithsonian's Air & Space Magazine about his Aunt Mildred Doran who participated in the Dole Race to Hawaii in 1927. Based on urging by readers, he published a non-fiction book about Mildred's adventure in 2011 called Shooting Star. He followed up with a book about several other flyers, 1927, A Brilliant Year in Aviation. That too, was non-fiction.

In 2012 he attended a memorial in Columbia South Carolina, celebrating the life of Paul Redfern. Redfern a resident of Columbia attempted a flight to Rio de Janeiro in 1927. However, he did not make it all the way there. The Paul Reynaldo Redfern Aviation Society meets annually to raise a glass to Redfern's memory. Among other things, a film was shown at the meeting of one of the search parties sent to Venezuela in search of Redfern. One of the scenes in the film showed the explorers and natives meeting on a riverbank.

That scene made an impression on DuRose who decided to write a fictional account of Redfern's supposed life in the jungle with natives. DuRose began to research conditions in the jungle in the 1920's. He incorporated that with what is known about Redfer's life and included all of it in this book. As a recent Netflix film states--This story is completely true, except for the parts totally made up.

In the story Redfern is at first afraid for his life. But the natives turn out to be friendly. However, nearby tribes are not at all peaceful. Once he saves his village from an attack, he is regarded as an emissary of the spirits. He becomes a welcome member of the village involved in normal tribal activities. Finally, he makes a break for it and attempts to rejoin civilization.

During preparation for his flight, the designer of his airplane, after learning that his flight would be over fifty hours, said, "You should reconsider, that's more than a man can stand."

In addition to writing DuRose has spent his spare time hiking and golfing. On Tuesdays he and his son Steve go the local Brewery and play trivia. Steve is good at it and DuRose chimes in occasionally.

DuRose is currently working on another novel that came to him in a dream. It is a police procedural that involves a small city in Northern California and the murder of a beloved City Manager. As you can guess, it is not aviation related.