Richard Fitzpatrick was born in Grand Rapids and grew up in Battle Creek, Michigan. 

   In the mid-1960s, he left Michigan to attend college (Harding College, Searcy, Arkansas and Memphis State University, Memphis, TN).  Soon thereafter, his mother (the late Lavon Fitzpatrick) moved to Las Vegas where other family members were living.  She worked as a nurse at Sunrise Hospital for many years.

   In 1969, Richard was drafted into the US Army.  He served as an Infantryman with the 25th Infantry Division in Cu Chi, Tay Ninh & Xuan Loc, VietNam and in Cambodia.  During his two years of  active duty, he was awarded 13 medals and ribbons including a Purple Heart, Air Medal, two Bronze Stars & two Army Commendation Medals.

   In 1973, Richard moved back to Battle Creek, MI where he worked for a marketing and advertising firm. 

   He was elected to serve in the Michigan House of Representatives in 1978, becoming only the third Democrat in 100 years to be elected from that district.

   In 1980, he was reelected winning 63% of the vote.  Reapportionment put Richard into a substantially different, even more Republican district in 1982.  He was elected with 59% of the vote while the successful Democratic candidate for Governor received 39% of the vote in Richard’s district.  In 1984, Democratic Presidential candidate Walter Mondale received support from only 31% of the voters in this district; even so, Richard was reelected with 61% of the vote.

   In 1986, he kept a campaign promise to serve no more than 4 terms and did not seek reelection. When the area’s 15-term State Senator made a last-minute decision to not run for re-election, Richard became a candidate for that seat which no Democrat had ever held.  He lost the general election receiving nearly 49% of the vote.

   While in the Michigan legislature, Richard was the Principal Sponsor of nearly 40 bills that became public law.  He was Chairperson of:  the Committee on Towns & Counties; the Special Committee to Reorganize Blue Cross/Blue Shield; and the Committee on High Speed Rail.  He served as Vice Chairperson of:  the Insurance Committee, Committee on Health Care Cost Containment, and the Committee on Military & Veterans Affairs.  Richard was named "Legislator of the Year" by the Michigan Association of the Professions and was similarly honored by the Michigan Association of Osteopathic Physicians & Surgeons, Michigan Optometric Association and the Michigan Hospice Organization.

   After leaving the legislature, Richard returned to the Battle Creek marketing firm (Nordstrom, Fitzpatrick & Partners) creating public affairs campaigns for non-profit organizations, professional medical associations, foundations, hospitals and state and local governmental agencies.

   He was a founder and led programs to provide multi-stepped transitional housing and supportive services for homeless and jobless veterans in Michigan and nationally.

   In 1996 Richard returned to Nevada and became Vice President for Community Development for Nathan Adelson Hospice.  Two years later he was recruited to be CEO of VistaCare’s hospice and palliative care program in Las Vegas.  He soon launched a similar program in Reno.  As president of the Hospice Association of Nevada, Richard led the successful effort to pass legislation to have hospice care paid for by the state’s Medicaid program.  He became Executive Director of the Vista Hospice Care Foundation providing assistance nationwide to families of patients in need; help for dying patients to fulfill their last wishes; and initiatives of community education and academic research to expand the availability of quality end-of-life care.

   Tiring of the continual out-of-state travel, Richard began working with local technology companies and was responsible for the development and operation of IBAN (Internet Business Alliance of Nevada), a non-profit alliance of the state's information technology, networking, communications, and e-commerce businesses and their employees, suppliers and investors.    
  

 He played a key role in the passage of legislation in Nevada permitting a wide array of interactive gaming and successfully advocated for the creation of the state’s standards and regulations.  He was responsible for the planning, formation and operation of the Interactive Gaming Institute a non-profit association created to advance, enhance and expedite the implementation of interactive networked gaming by licensed companies.

   Richard led the establishment of the Language Access Network, Inc. (T-LAN) in 2002.  His original concept was to provide information and assistance to businesses and governments exploring new forms of remote, networked gaming.  However, he saw a greater opportunity in using the technology of wireless video networking to assist individuals who speak different languages.  In order to more quickly turn that vision into reality, T-LAN acquired Preciss, LLC  in September of 2005.  Preciss had begun three years earlier in Columbus, Ohio based on the parallel belief that efficiency could be improved, and costs could be reduced, by providing interpretation services through two-way video conferencing from centralized call centers.  Preciss had installed an encrypted high-speed network connection from a medical facility to its video linguistic center.  Medical personnel use a wireless powered mobile cart, equipped with a state-of-the-art video conferencing camera, to connect to an interpreter.  This system is called “PAL” (Personal Assisted Languages).  It combined the personalization of having an onsite interpreter with the convenience of being able to have immediate access to any language with a simple “push of a button.”  

   In order to have adequate resources for the company to expand quickly enough and wisely enough to address the growing need for cost-efficient, quality language interpretation, Richard led the effort for T-LAN to have its corporate stock publicly traded.  That was approved in the spring of 2006 when the stock symbol (OTC: LANW) was issued.  With that mission complete, Richard left his positions as the company's CEO & the Chairperson of the Board and turned the operation of The Language Access Network over to a group of investors who took it to an even greater level of success -- providing live video interpretation service in over 150 languages, including American Sign Language (ASL) through a service known as Martti™ (My Accessible Real-Time Trusted Interpreter). The service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  In 2008, T-LAN was spun out of the public corporation and taken private by a group of California investors.  Richard remains one of the company's most enthusiastic cheerleaders.

   Richard continues to be an active entrepreneur assisting the start-up of high-tech ventures with equity investments and management assistance through his leadership of Tiger Centrix -- investing in innovation from Henderson and Las Vegas, Nevada to Phu Quoc and Ho Chi Minh City, VietNam.  He supports worthwhile not-for-profit programs through the Fitzpatrick Family Foundation and donations through the Battle Creek (MI) Community Foundation.