August 2003:
I enlisted in the U.S. Marines during the Korean War and was honorably discharged at the rank of Sergeant. After the Marines, I went to the University of Minnesota and law school. Upon graduation, I became an ATF agent (then called A&TTD), and served in N. Carolina and Philadelphia. After a few years, I switched to the intelligence side (CIA). Suffice it to say that I lived, worked, or traveled in, about 30 countries, including most of Western Europe - Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war. My ham-radio callsign is K5OQ.
When I left government, I moved to Dallas with my wife (now ex) and two sons. In Dallas, I was a security consultant, managed a couple of small businesses, was a marketing director in a division of a FORTUNE 500 company, and founded a publishing company (which I later sold). For the last few years I was in Dallas, I wrote, edited, and produced software manuals.
I have one published novel, Serpent on the Hill, under my pen name, Philip Eliot. Written during the Cold War, the plot involved a Russian KGB agent who infiltrated our political system, became a Senator, and eventually ran for President of the United States. The book is out of print.
For many years, I have had articles and op-ed pieces published in the Dallas newspapers (you remember when they had two?). One passion is writing letters-to-the-editor. I have had letters published in both Dallas newspapers (probably over 100), a San Antonio paper, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NEWSWEEK, the Wall Street Journal, TV Guide, and others. For a year or so, I was a contributing editor for Texas Computing. I have written for Texas Monthly. I wrote the Home Security Manual, which was used by the Dallas Police Department Crime Prevention Unit for years.
In 1989 I moved to a rural area in between Bonham and Paris, Texas.
I am NOT the Richard Rhodes who wrote "The Making of the Atomic Bomb," and many other books. It is that person for whom you get the most hits when you search for "Richard Rhodes" in Google, Yahoo, etc. He was born on July 4, 1937, and I in an earlier year. One biography of the "other" Richard Rhodes says that his mother committed suicide when he was 13-months-old. And that Richard spent seven years in therapy and 30 years of drinking to kill the pain. I trust that we are not related. I write (wrote) under the pen name of Philip Eliot, or use my name and middle initial, Richard C. Rhodes.
I am certainly not related to the rabid liberal muckraker Randi Rhodes who broadcasts on Air America - and now apparently has a newspaper column. She was born in Brooklyn NY, was a mechanic in the Air Force. She went AWOL from the Air Force, but was never prosecuted.
Richard C. Rhodes
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