Richard Parsons

This month on Conversations from the Pointed Firs, host Peter Neill sits down with Richard Parsons, author of "Storm Warriors of the Maine Coast: Stories of the Life-Saving Station at Biddeford Pool" to discuss the iconic coastal structures, their preservation, future, and the stories of the Coast Guard life saving service, all but forgotten to history. Richard Parsons taught history and English for thirty years in public schools before joining the staff of the Institute for Learning Technologies at Columbia University. There, he worked with others to digitize resources held by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the Library of Congress, among others, to make them available to scholars and educators. Later, as a member of the Center for Technology and School Change at Columbia University Teachers College, he worked with pre-service and in-service teachers to bring more effective uses of technology into public school classrooms. Today, Richard serves as historian for the Friends of the Wood Island Lighthouse. He is the author of two books, Wood Island Lighthouse: Stories from the Edge of the Sea, (2022) and Storm Warriors of the Maine Coast. Stories of the Life- Saving Service at Biddeford Pool (2025). His articles have appeared in Wreck & Rescue, The Journal of the U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association. Learn more at pointedfirs.org/