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Richard Glenn
Richard Glenn lives in Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost community in the United States. Most of the residents of Barrow are Inupiat Eskimos, whose culture centers on whaling. As the son of an Inupiat mother and a white father, Richard feels strong connections to his community, which has changed drastically in the last twenty-five years. According to Richard, "the culture of the Inupiat remained isolated and basically unchanged until 1968, when vast oil reserves were discovered." With huge quantities of oil flowing out, the Inupiat sold much of their land holdings for almost $1 billion. The sale provided funds to start more than 200 businesses that would provide jobs and revenue for the Inupiat, changing the Inupiat culture dramatically. Although Richard grew up far away from Barrow and from Inupiat culture, on a family visit when he was thirteen years old, he was drawn to his Native-American roots and decided that he would move to Barrow as an adult. Today, he is a community leader, working to preserve the culture and, at the same time, to modernize the economy.Richard is an expert on sea ice. To gather data, he relies on a combination of the traditional knowledge of his people and the scientific training he gained while studying geology at San Jose State University and at the University of Alaska. In college, Richard decided to focus his studies on geology so that he could expand on the knowledge that the Inupiat already had about sea ice. Since Barrow lies 350 miles inside the Arctic circle, there is plenty of sea ice around for him to study. He runs a company that is a subsidiary of one of the original 200 businesses started after the land deal. His business provides important information about ice strength to many big businesses and to the military. These clients need ice data for oil exploration, submarine navigation, and shipping information.
As a community leader and a businessman, Richard's drive to make his business a success is very important. He is committed to improving the well-being of his community through his business and he feels that economic success is one of the obligations of Inupiat leadership.
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