Richard Wiese

A few years ago I produced a television piece about the Explorer's Club and got to know its president, Richard Wiese. Richard is a very cool guy, some would say too cool, and his uber-handsome looks and surfer-dude demeanor rankled a lot of folks at the Explorer's Club.

I got to go to the famed Explorer's Club dinner and chatted with various folks there, big-time adventurer types and bona-fide scientists, who spoke disdainfully of Wiese. I more or less figured the venom was due to the fogeyness factor, that these hard-core old types just loved to grumble about anything that had the whiff of being hip...and of hair spray. I found Wiese engaging and a solid dude, and I think he was doing a fine job turning the Explorer's Club into a place that welcomed younger adventure types, even if all these folks weren't studying microbes at the top of Everest, the club was still the kind of place you could go and rub elbows with really smart, accomplished people. IT was, in a word, inspiring.

I'd heard that Wiese was no longer at the Explorer's Club helm and wondered what happened to him. He is an avid self-promoter and has a face for TV, so I was pretty sure that's the direction he went. I was right. I learned that and a whole lot more over at Outside Magazine, which ran a feature on Wiese last month. It's a fine article and discusses many of the controversy I mention here about Weise's reputation at the club. But it's also a fairly sympathetic piece that lays out his contributions to the club during his tenure. I for one, hope he does well as he heads off on new projects, and I hope as well that the Explorer's Club stays the course and remains welcoming to a broader audience.

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