Richard Shore

From 1988, until his retirement from doing presentations in 2017, Dick Shore portrayed the life of the wilderness mystic and foundational conservationist John Muir in evocative living history interpretations. Dr. Shore promoted environmental education using the storytelling tradition -- portraying Muir first-hand as he reflects on his 1000-mile walk from Louisville to the Gulf of Mexico. These presentations of Muir portrayed him as an eminent writer, glacial geologist, naturalist, father of Yosemite, founder of the Sierra Club; mechanical inventor; world class ambler; architect of the National Park Service, and raconteur extraordinaire.
Dr. Shore's presentations were unique, as he began his presentation as himself, and then slowly transformed himself into John Muir, after which he remained in character until the last person had left the theater.
Dr. Shore brought both personal and professional expertise to his presentations of John Muir. Born in the shadow of John Muir's own beloved Sierra Nevada, as a boy Dr. Shore hiked and camped in Yosemite and valleys throughout the west coast. Since then he has camped in over half the remaining states.
His formal education includes a Ph.D in Zoology (Duke 1963) and MBA (Toledo 1974), course work in both ecology and economics. His MBA is in Operations Analysis. He was a Certified Quality Engineer and Industrial Engineer. In his parallel career capacity has served in both industrial and government organizations, promoting alternative fuel vehicles and water quality.
Dr. Shore's life-long passion for the theatre has enhanced this John Muir presentation which he has given all over the United States, and in both New Zealand and Scotland, enthralling over 31,000 people since 1987.
Dr. Shore has long been active in the Sierra Club, just finishing in 2017 a term as chair of the Bluegrass group (Lexington and surrounding counties in Kentucky). He is a member of the Club's John Muir Education Team. He also works with the Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice.
His clients included Elder Hostel (now called Road Scholar), universities and colleges, the U.S. Army, state chapters of the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, Nature Conservancy, as well as various civic and religious groups. He has been featured on both TV and radio talk shows and in 1995 graced the cover of "Legacy" magazine.
Richard Shore comments about his inspiration of John Muir, "Above all things, John Muir remains the archetypal consummate great and gentle soul whose legacy endures as a reminder to us to live in harmony with nature."

Testimonials about Richard Shore's unique presentations include thesse:
- "Others do Muir. Dick is John Muir."
  - Don Wiggington, Educator, Outdoor Leader
- "It is seeing the wilderness as it was for the first time. It is a walk with John Muir himself ... humorous, witty, entertaining... so timely still."
  - Nancy Stearns Theis, Educator, Naturalist
- "Really caught the spirit of the man."
  - William F. Kimes, Eductor, Hiker, Author of 'Reader's Guide to the Muir Literature"
- "Dr. Shore's John Muir is a rare event, a unique and wonderfully entertaining, exceptionally educational presentation of a profound message ... spellbinding."
  - Walter Mastropaoio, Ph.D. Chemist, Former chair Cumberland, Kentucky Chapter Sierra Club.

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