I was converted to the gospel and baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when I was a student doing my undergraduate work at California State University Long Beach in 1972. I completed my education in 1973 and began a career as a high school teacher and basketball coach. For several years thereafter I was in and out of the Church. In 1996 I took a position as the Advanced Placement U.S. History teacher and basketball coach at La Quinta High School in Westminster, CA in Orange County. I was inactive in the Church at the time of my employment at La Quinta and remained inactive throughout the nineteen years I worked as a teacher and coach there. In 2014, one week before the start of school and the 2014-15 school year I was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer and given a 30% chance to survive the cancer. I immediately began radiation and chemotherapy treatments while I was able to continue both my teaching career and my daily workouts at 24 Hour Fitness in Aliso Viejo, CA where I lived. During my Christmas winter break from school in 2014, I was working out at 24 Hour Fitness when I met a gentleman who was wearing BYU gear (t-shirt and shorts). As soon as he began his exercise next to me, I felt prompted to begin a conversation with him and asked him if he was a BYU alum. He indicated that he was a BYU graduate, and then asked me if I was a BYU alum as well. I told him that I was not but that I had a son in his senior year as a BYU undergraduate.
I told this gentleman all about my son including what he was studying, how he was attending a YSA ward in Provo, and that he was very active in the Church but his dad, not so much. It was at this moment that the gentleman stuck out his hand and said, “Let me introduce myself. My name is Robert Davis and I am your stake president.” With a look of terror and shock on my face we shook hands and I introduced myself to him. We continued to talk for a few moments and at the end of the conversation President Davis invited me to attend the Wood Canyon Ward Sacrament meeting the following Sunday.
That night my son called from Provo to let me know that he was finishing up his last final and would be home for the Christmas break in just a day or two. I told him about my random meeting in the gym with President Davis and about his invitation to attend Church. Kyle arrived home for his Christmas break and we attended the Wood Canyon Sacrament meeting. After the meeting President Davis offered to give me a Priesthood blessing. We went into the stake offices and he and my son gave me a Priesthood blessing, my son being the voice. In the blessing the Lord blessed me with the desire to return to activity in the Church. The blessing was realized, and I began to attend Church once again as a member of the Aliso Viejo Ward. Shortly after my return to church activity I was called by President Davis to serve as an assistant stake clerk in the Laguna Niguel Stake. I served in the calling for two years. Then in February 2017 I was called to serve in the bishopric of the Aliso Viejo Ward. I served as first counselor in the bishopric for exactly three years. In February of 2020 I was released from the bishopric and called by new Laguna Niguel Stake President Blaine Evanson to serve on the Laguna Niguel Stake High Council, my current calling. Truly the gospel of Jesus Christ is the Gospel of Second Chances.
Rich and his wife Terry, who he married in 2018 in the San Diego temple.