About Rich

Rich Graziano originally hails from Orange County, CA. After being expelled from two high schools, he completed his high school education at Rancho Santiago Adult Continuation High School and enlisted in the U.S. Army.

After serving, he entered New Mexico Military Institute and earned a commission in the U.S. Army as an infantry officer.

Eventually he returned to Orange County to complete his undergraduate degree at CSU Fullerton. It is there that he and Deanna, his beautiful bride of fourteen years, met.

In 1996, Rich entered Talbot School of Theology with the plan to return to the U.S. Army as a chaplain serving infantry soldiers. Shortly into his seminary training, however, he decided that his interests really lie in analytic philosophy and decided to pursue a Ph.D. in epistemology at UC Santa Barbara.

Today, he and Deanna live with their cat, Alli, near San Luis Obispo, CA where he teaches philosophy at Cal Poly State University. On any given day that he and Deanna have off from work, it is likely that they are out rock or ice climbing in one of their favorite local crags or in other locales, e.g., the eastern Sierra Nevada, Yosemite Valley, Tuolumne Meadows, Joshua Tree, Grand Teton National Park, etc. Both say that climbing is one of the most amazing activities that they have ever found.

In addition to his personal climbing, Rich has worked on and off as a part-time mountain guide. He will start guiding again this summer season in the eastern Sierra Nevada range for Sierra Mountain Center. He is a certified Wilderness First Responder, an American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) Certified Single Pitch Instructor and hopes to achieve the AMGA’s full certification as a Rock Climbing Guide and/or Alpine Guide.