Tolkien 2005 Committee

Richard has been a member of the Tolkien Society since 1986. He first read The Lord of the Rings at the suggestion of an unknown somebody at the age of 15, at the time of the original BBC Radio 4 dramatisation. Although he read an article in the Radio Times about the Society at the time he did not get around to joining until some years afterwards.

Shortly after joining the Society he started attending events and very quickly became an active member. He has attended practically all the events organised by the Society since Oxonmoot 1987 and has been involved with organising, in one way or another, many of them.

He was invited to join the organising committee for the JRR Tolkien Centenary Conference and organised both Tech Ops and Stewarding. He also became responsible for Ops by default; howerver, it was all too much work for one person – a mistake he does not intend to repeat! Since that event was beneficial to the Society as well as being enjoyable to organise he has desired to be involved with the organisation of other large events for the Society. Hence, he was very keen to see Tolkien 2005 become a reality.

As well as his work with Tolkien 2005 he is also a Trustee for the Tolkien Society. In 1995 he was elected to the position of Officer without Portfolio (OwP) on the Tolkien Society committee; a position he has been re-elected to each year ever since.

Professionally he is an Engineer; Electronics by qualification but Software in practice.