2019 Luminary Series – Ric Finch
Ric Finch grew up in Georgetown, Texas, and spent a meaningful part of his youth crawling around in a few caves of central Texas. As part of his adventures, Ric mined and sold bat guano to various neighbors for use as fertilizeressentially Finchs version of a kids lemonade stand! Later, at the University of Texas in Austin, Ric worked on a Ph.D. under Bill Muehlberger. And, as one of Muehlbergers graduate students, Ric was sent to do fieldwork in faraway Honduras. After graduation, Ric returned to the cave-rich areas of Central America. There, Ric and his teammates explored and surveyed a number of challenging caves, including Cueva La Buena Fé, Cueva Guatemalía, Cueva Masical, and Cueva Siete Quebradas. Finch led the first expedition by cavers into the remote Montañas de Colón karst, and participated in a second expedition there led by Pete Shifflett. In addition, Ric was part of the final Subterraneo del Río Atima expedition led by Steve Knutson.