Mr. Richard Erickson graduated from Cloquet High School in 1980. He went to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis to major in civil engineering and transferred to the University of Minnesota Duluth, graduating summa cum laude in 1984 with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Teaching Physical Science.
Richard taught from 1984-1994 in Mahtomedi, MN. In 1991 he was selected Mahtomedi Teacher of the Year and was selected as a 1991 Minnesota Honor Roll Teacher, one of seven finalists in the search for Minnesota Teacher of the Year. In 1994 Richard moved with his family to Bayfield to return to the Lake Superior area. He has been teaching chemistry and physics throughout his career, and has been teaching alternative education since 2011.
Richard completed his National Board of Professional Teaching Standards certification in 2002 and was awarded the 2003 Excellence in Science Education Award from the Wisconsin society of Science Teachers. In 2013 he received the 2013 Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Fellowship Award and was then selected as the 2014 Wisconsin High School Teacher of the Year.
Richard was selected by the Wisconsin Education Association Council to represent Wisconsin teachers at the 2015 NEA Foundation Awards for Teaching Excellence. He traveled to Washington, DC where he was one of only five teachers in the United States to receive a 2015 Horace Mann Award.