Rick Laubscher
Rick Laubscher (born 1949) is president and CEO of San Francisco non-profit Market Street Railway. Noted for his civic contributions to the city of San Francisco, Laubscher is a former reporter and public relations executive.[1]
Early life
[edit]Born in 1949 in San Francisco, Laubscher grew up working in his family's delicatessen, Laubscher Brothers Delicatessen, at Grant Market on Market Street.[2] He attended college at UC Santa Cruz, where he created the university's first radio station.[3]
Career
[edit]Laubscher attended the Columbia School of Journalism to obtain his master's degree in journalism, where he graduated first in his class. He received the Pulitzer Fellowship; upon graduation, he used the fellowship to spend a year traveling and reporting from different locations around the world.[4] When he returned to California, he began his career as a journalist. He took his first job at KGTV in San Diego, where he interviewed then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan and received two "Golden Mike" awards for his work.[5] In 1977, he returned to San Francisco to report for KRON-TV.
In 1978, Laubscher was one of the first reporters on the scene at the Moscone–Milk assassinations.[6] Laubscher was acquainted with both victims as well as the killer, Dan White, and his coverage of the event earned an Emmy award.[5] He also covered the Jonestown massacre the same year.
In 1981, Laubscher left reporting and transitioned to a public relations career as an executive with the Bechtel Group. After 18 years with the Bechtel Group, he left to found his own communications company, Messagesmith.
Civic involvement
[edit]As Chair of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Transportation committee, Laubscher organized the inaugural Historic Trolley Festival in collaboration with then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein in 1982.[7] In 1985, he established Market Street Railway as a non-profit organization. His work with Market Street Railway was instrumental in establishing the city's historic F Line, which opened in 1995 and is now the most popular transit line of its kind in the United States.[5] He continues to serve as President and CEO of Market Street Railway.[8]
In 1987, Laubscher was the founding Chairman of the City Club of San Francisco, one of the first fully operating business organizations in the San Francisco Financial District.[1] In 2011, Laubscher received the Silver SPUR Award from the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association for notable civic achievement.[1]
Further reading
[edit]- Laubscher, Rick (2016). "Rick Laubscher: Forty Years of Giving Back to San Francisco, From KRON to Market Street Railway" (PDF). Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library (Interview). Interviewed by Todd Holmes. San Francisco, California: University of California, Berkeley (published 2017). Retrieved 2018-12-20.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "2011 Silver SPUR Awards: How Rick Laubscher Put SF's History to Work for the Future". San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association. November 1, 2011. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
- ^ "OBITUARY -- Fred H. Laubscher". SF Gate. September 4, 1997. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
- ^ Holmes 2017, p. 11
- ^ Holmes 2017, p. 38
- ^ a b c Holmes 2017
- ^ Holmes 2017, p. 98
- ^ Republished article: Franz, Justin (January 20, 2019). "A direct line to the past: The streetcars of San Francisco". Retrieved February 12, 2019 – via The Spokesman-Review. Original article: Franz, Justin (December 14, 2018). "In San Francisco, visitors and locals ride the rails as they did a century ago". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
- ^ "About Market Street Railway". Streetcar.org. San Francisco Market Street Railway. 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
- 1949 births
- Living people
- American chief executives
- University of California, Santa Cruz alumni
- Businesspeople from San Francisco
- 21st-century American businesspeople
- Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni
- 20th-century American journalists
- American male journalists
- Journalists from California
- Writers from San Francisco