If you ask Beth Richards where she is from, her answer might be longer than you would expect. Richards, a biology lab instructor at Bowdoin, had an unusual childhood. The daughter of a career military man, Richards grew up moving from state to state, country to country.
Richards’ passion for exploration extends far beyond the classroom, and students are always eager to hear about her latest motorcycle rides and mountaineering feats.
“I’ve lived in 16 states and three or four other countries,” explained the self-described army brat, who has lived in Seoul, South Korea and Newfoundland, Canada.
Richards continued to travel after her childhood, adopting a nomadic lifestyle with her husband. Together they “lived in a teepee for a while in Arizona and northern New Mexico.”
Richards’ road to Brunswick has been long, winding and full of surprises.
“I went to college as a teenager—I was sixteen and probably a little too young,” reflected Richards. “I dropped out and became a mailman in Washington, D.C. Then I went back, but still couldn’t figure out what to major in, so I took off on my bicycle and ended up in New England.”
To Bowdoin students, Richards’ decision to leave college—twice—may seem rash, but it suggests that there isn’t just one path in life.
“I’ve been a herdsman on a dairy farm, I’ve been a janitor,” Richards said. “But my main job, my most important job, was taking care of my children. We cobbled together an existence that was neat and fun, and I got into biology when I was older.”
Richards made a life of traveling with her family and lived on the road for many years.
“There were some close calls,” she admitted. “Times when we didn’t know what we were going to do, like when our car broke down and we ended up picking grapes in Santa Rosa, [California]. I’ve had situations where I’ve been living on the edge, not knowing how to go on, but then you do. You have to be willing to work hard.”
Although Richards is aware of the obstacles of life on the road, to her, it was all worth it.
“I have an intense drive to do adventurous things,” she said.
Richards has a unique story about the birth of her four children. Two were delivered at home by her husband, and two by a midwife at a commune in Tennessee.
“Things that are normal now, the vegetarianism, we were practicing thirty years ago,” explained Richards. “We would buy bags of beans and grind wheatberries to make flour into bread. I washed cloth diapers by hand in a bucket.”
Richards’ back-to-basics approach to living has been consistent throughout her life, and seems to have freed her from the ties to place many people struggle with.
Richards has been living in Maine for about 20 years—the longest she has ever remained in one place. One of her most cherished memories here is of hiking Mount Katahdin in January.
“You have to haul your stuff in 11 miles on snowshoes or skis. I’ve been caught at Katahdin in extremely severe weather, trying to descend when you have ice chunks on your eyelashes and you can’t see your hand in front of your face. I’ve had some close calls,” she said.
Equally incredible though, is Richards’ relationship with academics.
“I went back to school when I was 46 and loved it—in a way I never could have been into it before when I was younger. I was 50 when I got my degree [in biology], then I went and got my master’s in molecular biology and landed this job here,” she said.
Unsurprisingly, Richards’ recent occupation with Biology has not kept her away from adventure. These days, Richards has gotten interested in motorcycling. Her favorite excursion so far has been a two month-long ride across the U.S.
She and her husband rode from Maine to Alaska, on their own bikes.
“I’m not the sort of person to ride on the back of a motorcycle,” she joked.