BIOGRAPHY for Richard Garber

Richard Garber - Vice President Public Relations

1) Where do you work?

I don’t work anymore, I retired from my second career as a consulting metallurgical engineer. My first career was in applied research at two huge corporations. Then for a couple of decades I worked at small companies or labs on failure analysis, which is figuring out why things busted or rusted. I grew up and was educated in Pittsburgh. In 1981 I received my a Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

2) How did you hear about Toastmasters?

I heard about Toastmaster in 2005 from Cleon Cox, a Distinguishe Toastmaster in the Portland, Oregon area who taught a job finders workshop at a public library branch near where I lived. But I didn’t join until I got to Boise in 2007.

3) Why did you join Toastmasters and how has Toastmasters helped you with your personal and career goals?

When I was considering starting my own solo failure analysis consulting business, I joined Capitol Club Toastmasters here in Boise to improve my verbal communication skills. In all my previous jobs I’d been stereotyped as a writer rather than a speaker.

Although I eventually did not open a business, and just retired early, Toastmasters helped me greatly improve my speaking skills. I earned Competent Communicator, Advanced Communicator Bronze, and Advanced Communicator Silver. Starting in mid 2008 I served two years as Vice President – Education for Capitol Club. I also started writing the Joyful Public Speaking blog, which now has over 1670 posts and 1,400,000 page views.

4) What do you do for fun?

Bicycling, photography, reading, cooking.