Richard became the youngest radio announcer in the country at the age of thirteen. He attended Washington and Lee University. After his third year there he left to work on oceangoing trawlers and fishing boats. After three years on the water he returned to school and earned a degree in journalism. Since that time Mark has been employed as a radio announcer, aerial photographer, house painter, advertising copywriter, naval correspondent for a newspaper, magazine editor, bartender, private investigator, and teacher.