A Connecticut Yankee (Greenwich), Rick came to the Academy via Wesleyan University.  His love of travel (he enjoyed midshipman cruises) led to his going Navy line upon graduation.  Rick served on the destroyer HAWKINS based in Norfolk.  He subsequently attended sub school in New London, but transferred out of the submarine service back to surface ships. He served as chief engineer of a liberty ship that was involved in the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961.

Rick resigned from the Navy in 1961 and joined the electronics engineering firm Sorenson in Connecticut, working in sales. Then in 1967 he joined the Houston based oilfield service company Dresser Industries, also in a sales capacity. He retired from that firm. 

He died of lung cancer in 1995, in Clear Lake, TX.  He was survived at that time by his children Eric Jr, Keith, and Kimberly, and by grandchildren Katherine, Grant, and Eric III.