Richard J Campbell was born and raised in New York City. He attended Stuyvesant High School and Hunter College of the City University of New York. He then pursued a graduate degree in philosophy at The Pennsylvania State University. He went on to teach for 14 years at Penn State before leaving the university in 1982 to found his own martial arts dojo teaching the Japanese arts of karate and iaido (swordsmenship). The dojo still exists today. Richard retired from his career as an educator in 2002. With his wife Ann, he now pursues his interests in travel, current world events, and military history. He lives on a boat in Fell's Point, Baltimore, Maryland. Richard is a Fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar.