Looking Toward the New Power Generation
July 29, 2008 | 
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If you intend to keep pace with Richard Skorman, prepare yourself with a good pair of speed skates and a large amount of Vitamin “V” (vision).
Beneath his calm exterior lies the heart of a warrior and the soul of a visionary. Richard has been labeled Colorado’s Best Old Hippie, Best Tree Hugger, and Best Leftist Radical, but these tags are just the tip of Richard’s biographical iceberg. His life to date has been a virtual tower of experiential learning that has made a difference to communities across the United States. His work has created innovative, intellectual “green space” for us in Colorado Springs.
Richard’s Colorado story began as a student at Colorado College. Colorado seemed a far cry from his Ohio home, and with a natural affinity for literature and film, his university major, “Art Studio”, provided him the tools to begin exploring the world through the camera lens. With virtually no experience as a restaurateur, Richard opened “Poor Richard’s Feed & Read” armed with $8,000 and a dream.
The restaurant+book business in 1977 required a 24-hour work schedule for Richard. His daily drive to Denver for fresh bagels at New York Bagel Boys, his yummy 75-cent egg salad sandwiches, and his aromatic espresso concoctions saved many a CC student from hunger pangs and created an ambiance similar to cities like Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. Richard was chief cook, dishwasher, and delivery man seven days a week for three years. Ed, who mans Richard’s Book Store to this day, began working with Richard and is part of the Poor Richard’s family of experts.
Across the street from Poor Richard’s Read and Feed Richard provided additional food for thought. Customers interested in the latest avant-garde films could stop in to enjoy a film, sit back and read, and discuss the latest tidbits concerning the arts.
“I wanted to provide natural access to the arts,” Richard said. “I was able to grow the restaurant and book store combination with a movie in the middle to active the intellect for our customers.”
When the opportunity came to expand the business by adding increased space to the restaurant, Richard did not hesitate. As his business grew physically, he also spearheaded another “growth opportunity” for Colorado Springs. The Kerouac Conference with poets Alan Ginsberg, Peter Orlofsky, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and William S. Burroughs provided a venue for these artists to read their works to enthusiastic Colorado Springs audiences .
“Colorado Springs had never experienced anything like it,” Skorman said. “We were able to provide ‘food and community’ to people of all kinds who wanted to hear what these artists
had to say.”
All was not a walk in the park for Richard in his growing business. In 1982, a crazed arsonist set fire to his establishment, leaving Richard and his employees a three-month span with no income, and herculean work to reconstruct his place.
“We raised money by the dollar bills people gave us,” Richard explained. “My employees still received a salary, and we worked to reconstruct the place one stick at a time.”
Needing a change, Richard sold the business, went to New York, met and married his beloved Patricia. After seven years of work in the New York cinema and book industry, with a life-altering internship in Yonkers where he learned (from Frank and Frankie, owners of Pizza Emporium) the art of creating the ultimate pizza, he returned to Colorado Springs, repurchased the business, and ventured yet again into another phase of what he describes as “a political voice for reason”.
Since his return to Colorado Springs, Richard has found his voice as a spokesperson for issues of social justice and community involvement. With all these events to his credit, Richard “was humbled by what he didn’t know” and moved from business man to city-council member for Colorado Springs. In his capacity of “lone liberal”, his position of advocate of the disenfranchised has grown in direct proportion to the catastrophic events of the last five years.
As if serving on City Council were not enough, Richard served on the Board of the Gill
Foundation. In this capacity he has supported programs that work to empower all members of society no matter their economic status, national or racial origin, or sexual orientation.
To understand the political side of civic involvement, Richard worked with Senator Ken Salazar’s office here in Colorado Springs.
After hurricane Katrina’s devastation of the Gulf Coast, Richard recruited more than 300 Colorado Springs volunteers to assist displaced Gulf Coast families, “adopting people”, finding lodging, locating lost family members, providing medicine, attending births, and collecting $100,000 in cash which he gave to families in need. He enlisted Chuck Murphy of the Grey Line bus company to bring disaster victims from the Astrodome to Colorado Springs.
“The busses went down there empty and returned full,” Skorman told us. The “Rocky Mountain Relocation” project assisted 2,000 people to find lodging in Colorado Springs in the short span of three to five days.
“We collected 749 pairs of eye glasses for people who went without because they had to get out fast,” Skorman said. “We collected airline miles to fly people around the country, and we wired people money so they could connect with their families. The Attorney General of the State of Louisiana visited us personally to say thank you for this work.”
Richard continues to speak and do for those who cannot.
“I’m working on a new project,” he said. “New Power Generation by 2016.” Richard, Patricia, and assistant Sarah are presently working to develop a “multibulb campaign”, to develop a no-cost to the patron energy-efficient light bulb distribution center plus general resources for energy conservation and workshop model for teaching people to conserve energy.
“We don’t want to exist in a few years”, Richard added. “We want to share what we learn about the fifth fuel source”, a way to conserve energy and save money for the average person.
Richard’s project, let’stwist.org, is planned to begin operation shortly, and the public will receive more information about it through various media publications.
Richard’s participation in the Conservation Corps has provided him greater understanding of the divide that exists between conservation and income. If the process as we know it is “unconsumer friendly” he views his role as facilitator through letstwist.org to inform the public how to minimize our proverbial footprint in our community.
Colorado Springs Record+ suggests that you visit Poor Richard’s and Rico’s Café and Wine Bar this summer. We guarantee that you will find the book shop, Rico’s, the toy emporium, and the restaurant very special places to energize your spirit and nourish your soul. Richard Skorman is, after all, a household word, in Colorado Springs. We believe you should put his name in your to-know list.
Poor Richard’s Restaurant and Wine Bar
324 ½ North Tejon Street
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80903
719-632-7721, 719-630-7723
Poor Richard’s Discount Bookstore
320 North Tejon Street
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80903
578-0012
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