Richard Welch

PRESIDENT, RICHARD WELCH COLLECTIONS, LLC and dba POPCORN MUNCHIN' BUNNY PRODUCTIONS
Screenwriter and Producer

Tucson, Arizona

Member Since:
November 2013

Last online:
> 2 weeks ago

Invites sent:
0

About Richard

Richard's diverse ancestry includes Romanized Celts from the Rheinland, Ice Age mammoth hunters in Germany, mounted Medieval knights in service to the Duke of Cleves, Jewish fruit peddlers, Sergeant on board ships of the Dutch East India Company, coal miners, bricklayers, blacksmiths, school superintendents, Vaudeville singers, railroad workers, the last person to be executed in England by being burned at the stake, and a myriad of other professions. His parents expected a girl when he was born, but when he disappointed them by being a boy they didn't have a name for him. What to do? They named him after the doctor who delivered him, that's what.

Richard's life since then has followed a by-the-seat-of-his-pants existence. His eclectic résumé includes jobs as an airborne spy against the Soviet Union, Grand Trunk Western Railroad switchman, car checker and teletype operator, teacher on the high school and college levels in the United States, People's Republic of China, and the Russian Federation, assistant on several motion pictures since 1986, assembly line worker building Buicks, page in a state library, song writer, drummer and rhythm guitar player in a rock band in England, played on one record on Pye Records, graduate teaching assistant, writer of history-related books and articles, history museum director and curator, president of a tourist railroad, television salesman, and car rental agent. He loves writing, history, geography, collecting unique types of antiques, including the world's largest collection of Sun Records, daguerreotypes, CDVs and ambrotypes, Lionel trains, documents, maps, atlases, and his greatest love: genealogy. In 2013 he founded and became President/CEO of Richard Welch Collections, LLC, an Arizona Corporation. He worked on movies listed elsewhere on this profile. Guest teacher and curator at schools and museums in China, Russia and Poland. His ancestors and relatives, as well as his own life experiences give him hundreds of script ideas.

Richard is well-traveled and has been in all 48 continental United States, Canada, Mexico, England, Scotland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iran, the Russian Federation, Siberia, Poland, and the People's Republic of China. He and his wife has a second home in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, PRC.

GUEST INSTRUCTOR
Yongfeng Foreign Language Training Center
February 2014 – February 2014 (1 month)Shenyang, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China
Guest teacher in a private school English honors class, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China, February 2014

永丰外语培训中心, 客人老师在一所私立学校英语荣誉班，沉阳市，辽宁省，中华人民共和国，2014年2月

Adjunct Instructor (Faculty Standards Teaching)
Pima Community College and San Juan College
June 2002 – September 2013 (11 years 4 months)Tucson, AZ
Richard taught the History and Geography of Russia, southern South America and other geography courses at San Juan College until June 2007 and since then has been teaching Physical and Cultural Geography courses, including Political Geography, and Russian History at Pima Community College as well as a course in Physical Geography at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. He also does occasional tutoring of elementary and middle school students in Tucson Unified School District.

Script cleaner
for independent producer and freelance screenwriter
June 2012 – August 2013 (1 year 3 months)
2012. Script cleaner on the motion picture "NEVER CAN SAY GOOD-BYE" and the TV series "OPERATION HOME BASE".

2013. Script cleaner on the motion picture "HOUSE OF DUNCAN".

History museums
USA
December 1972 – April 2007 (34 years 5 months)
Richard worked primarily in history museums throughout the United States as administrator and/or curator. He worked in museums in such diverse places as Des Plaines, IL, Dodge City, KS, Colorado Springs, CO, Tucson, AZ, Ridgecrest and Ventura, CA, Hyde Park, NY, Duluth, MN, Billings, MT, and Lawton, OK, He guided several museums to accreditation by the American Association of Museums and received many awards for his work. He wrote and produced many exhibition storylines and scripts, as well as all aspects of film production, plans and guides, books, and magazine articles for both his museums and also for popular consumption. He wrote and directed many radio and television PSAs during these years.

Guest Curator
Centralne Muzeum Włókiennictwa
May 2003 – September 2003 (5 months)Łódź, Poland
Advisor and Guest Curator at the Centralne Muzeum Włókiennictwa in Łódź, Poland through the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of State accompanying an exhibition of rare and historic Navajo rugs.

Doradca i gości kurator Centralne Muzeum Włókiennictwa w Łodzi, w Polsce poprzez sponsoring Departamentu Stanu USA towarzyszący wystawę rzadkich i historycznych chodników Navajo.

Guest Instructor
School No. 6, Severodvinsk, Russia
December 2001 – February 2002 (3 months)Severodvinsk, Arkhangel'sk Oblast', Russian Federation
Guest instructor in High School English Language Honors Class in School Number 6, Severodvinsk, Arkhangel'sk Oblast', Russian Federation.

Гость инструктор в средней школе английского языка отличием класса в Школа № 6, Северодвинск, Архангельская Область, Российская Федерация.

President of NSSR Railroad used in Iron Will
Walt Disney Pictures
1993 – 1994 (1 year)Duluth, MN

Assistant on The Incident
Qintex Entertainment
1990 – 1990 (less than a year)Colorado Springs, Colorado
Primetime Emmy; Christopher Award; Writers Guild of America Award; Edgar Allen Poe Award (nominated)

Assistant on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Lucasfilm, Ltd., directed by Steven Spielberg
1989 – 1989 (less than a year)Antonito, CO
Academy Award; Hugo Award

Assistant on Perry Mason: The Case of the Sinister Spirit
Dean Hargrove Productions/Fred Silverman Company
1987 – 1987 (less than a year)Colorado Springs, CO
Worked with the late Richard Lang (Director of "Melrose Place", "Beverly Hills 90210", "Harry O", "Kung Fu", and "Julia" among other TV shows) on script revisions and other assignments. Received an outstanding recommendation from Mr. Lang: "[Richard]. Thank you for all of your help! Without it this Perry Mason wouldn't have happened. Richard Lang"

Assistant on Manhunt for Claude Dallas
Jerry London Productions
1986 – 1986 (less than a year)Colorado Springs, CO

United States Air Force
Voice Intercept Processing Specialist (Russian Translator)
United States Air Force
July 1980 – July 1984 (4 years 1 month)6916th Security Squadron, based in W. Germany, Turkey and Iran
Spy in the sky against the USSR. Read Richard's book "From Farmboy to Fearless Leader" for more. Most of his work in the Air Force is now de-classified, so he can tell you about it sometime and introduce you to a friend who is a former Soviet radar operator who now lives in Severodvinsk. His friend was stationed in the DDR during the same years Richard was at Rhein-Main Air Base and tracked the spy plane flights arriving and departing Rhein-Main. He has some interesting stories from the "other side." It's not "007" spy-stuff, but it's "real" and fascinating nevertheless. Lots of real-life spy tales that would make a great movie with numerous events like the following:

One day Richard's spy aircraft was on a mission to Tehran and made a "wrong turn" over the Caspian Sea, directly over what the Soviet's considered to be their "lake". It appeared that the entire Soviet air forces were scrambled, but what Richard and the others on board the American aircraft didn't know until recently was that an RAF Canberra bomber was following close behind them for the purpose of testing Soviet southern air defenses. They could easily have shot down a sluggish C-130 (they had done it before, but you didn't know that, did you?), but a supersonic Canberra flying directly toward Tyuratam and one of SAC's primary targets at the Baikonur Cosmodrome was a different thing entirely. THAT's what upset the entire Soviet Union. Ha! The joke's on you, Mr. Khrushchev.

Any doubters are invited to read "The Price of Vigilance: Attacks on American Surveillance Flights" by Larry Tart and Robert Keefe, Ballantine Books, 2001; "Freedom Through Vigilance, Vol. IV: USAFSS Airborne Reconnaissance - Part 1", by Larry Tart, Infinity Publishing, December 2012, particularly the chapters relating to the 6916th Security Squadron, TUSLOG Det. 76, and missions to Tehran and beyond, or watch the BBC TV Timewatch series documentary, "History Undercover: Spies in The Sky", 1994.

Unique traits: His wife, Zhou Mingfei, is a native of Shenyang, Liaoning Province, People’s Republic of China, which makes him uniquely qualified to write scripts that take place in the PRC and vicinity. His marriage also gives him added insight into mixed race families, as do his three mixed race grand-daughters. Mingfei brings many amazing stories into their lives, having survived both Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Her mother was Deputy Minister of Health in Liaoning Province and her father was a long-time delegate to the the Liaoning provincial Congress and a high-ranking member of the Communist Party in the PRC. Her grand-father was a judge in Hebei Province which includes Beijing. Her Uncle Zhou Tieheng was a famous artist in China until his death during the Cultural Revolution.

Gender:
Male

Height:
5' 8"

Body type:
Average

Hair:
Medium

Hair color:
Brown

Eyes:
Blue

Certifications

Loglines

TRAINMAN Action ⋄ Adventure Charles is a toy train nut who never grew up, but he is also a serious, experienced and dedicated mercenary who is asked by the government to secretly (to prevent panic) stop a gang of terrorists who have stolen a fully armed nuclear weapon and are intent on taking it to Colorado Springs by train to blow up NORAD so our enemies can safely launch their missiles at America's largest cities.
LAZARUS' JOURNEY Drama ⋄ Historical Lazarus grows up in the midst of hopelessness and prejudice where anti-Jew laws prevent him from marrying, owning land, having an occupation, or leaving without permission from the prince, permission that never comes. He is told by God that if he passes certain tests, he will be richly rewarded. Lazarus grows in strength as he deals with flashbacks to Borodino and meets God's increasingly difficult challenges.
SHENYANG DAYS, TUCSON KNIGHTS Adventure ⋄ Romance Lost in the desperate world of music piracy, an American C&W singer currently at the top of the charts goes to Shenyang to retrieve a stolen master disc. He joins forces with a beautiful woman and is pulled between finding the disc and romancing the woman as she struggles to find her place between her traditional Chinese upbringing and life as a modern Chinese woman.
THE COWARD Adventure ⋄ Western Southwestern Kansas, 1868. A shy farm boy from Virginia is labeled a coward at the Battle of Gettysburg. After the war he moves west in the hope of escaping his demons and redeeming himself.
MY BLACK AND WHITE FAMILY Comedy ⋄ Family ⋄ Other Having four teenagers in the family is difficult enough, but in a mixed race family the issues and obstacles are compounded.
BABY HARRY'S HOLLYWOOD Biography ⋄ Drama ⋄ Historical A baby dies... Hollywood is born.
MATTHEW LOST Adventure ⋄ Biography ⋄ Historical The true story of a seven-year old boy who is kidnapped by Huron hunters, traded to other tribes and spends thirty-four years with tribes in Russian America and northwestern Canada before returning to Ohio to search for his birth family.
SAVING THE MUSIC Action ⋄ Adventure Mercenaries rescue two members of a North Korean all-girl band from execution, then make a shambles of Kwan-li-so No. 22, a North Korean concentration camp at Hoeryong, as they make their escape and discover a forgotten American POW from the Korean War.
ESCAPING PARADISE Action ⋄ Adventure An eclectic group of mercenaries enters North Korea to use their unique skills to rescue their friend's wife and baby before they are caught and executed as the group tweaks the tail feathers of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean Army Air Force and as they wreak havoc across Kim Jong-un's Socialist paradise on Earth..

View all 9 loglines

Credits

Production Manager (2016 - 2017)
Film by Baby Harry's Hollywood A Michigan teenager is crippled by polio and spends the rest of his life in a wheelchair while successfully overcoming obstacles in 19th century America that even an able-bodied man today would find nearly impossible to overcome, eventually platting and naming Hollywood.
President of NSSR Railroad used in Iron Will (1993)
Film by Walt Disney Company
The Incident (1990)
Television by Qintex Productions Assistant
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Film by Lucasfilm, Ltd. Assistant
The Case of the Sinister Spirit (1987)
Television by Dean Hargrove Productions/Fred Silverman Company Assistant
Manhunt for Claude Dallas (1987)
Television by Jerry London productions Assistant

View all 6 credits