Medal record
Men's athletics
Competitor for the  United States
Olympic Games
Gold	1952 Helsinki	Pole vault
Gold	1956 Melbourne	Pole vault
Bronze	1948 London	Pole vault
Pan American Games
Gold	1951 Buenos Aires	Pole vault
Gold	1955 Mexico City	Pole vault

The Reverend Robert Eugene Richards, known as Bob Richards (born February 20, 1926, in Champaign, Illinois), known as the "Vaulting Vicar" or the "Pole Vaulting Parson" in his competitive days, was a versatile athlete who made three Olympic teams in two events. He competed in the 1948, 1952, and 1956 Summer Olympics as a pole vaulter, and also was a decathlete in 1956.^[1]

He was the second man to pole vault 15 ft (4.6 m), and is the only two-time Olympic gold medal winner in the pole vault (1952 and 1956), with a bronze medal in 1948. He also was 13th in the 1956 decathlon. While a student at the University of Illinois, Richards tied for the national collegiate pole vault title and followed that with 20 national Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) titles, including 17 in the pole vault and three in the decathlon.^[2][3][4]

Richards later became involved in promoting physical fitness and continued to vault in his later years. He was the first athlete to appear on the front of Wheaties cereal boxes in 1958 (though not the first depicted on all parts of the packaging), and also was the first Wheaties spokesman, setting up the Wheaties Sports Federation, which encouraged participation in Olympic sports.^[5]

He had four sons who also were skilled pole vaulters; Brandon, held the national high school record at 18'2" for fourteen years from 1985;^[6] Tom won the CIF California State Meet in 1988; Bob, Junior was second in the same meet in 1968^[7] and later ranked #7 in the USA in 1973.^[8]

Ordained in 1946 as a minister in the Church of the Brethren, he was elected to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983 and the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1975.^[9] As he aged, Richards continued participating in Track and Field in a variety of events, particularly throwing events. He was one of the first regular participants in the origins of what now has become Masters athletics^[10]

In 1984, the Reverend Bob Richards ran for president of the United States on the newly formed far right, U.S. Populist Party ticket.^[11] He and running mate Maureen Salaman earned 66,324 votes. In 1988, that same party nominated white-supremacist David Duke for president. In 2010, Richards reportedly expressed support for a white nationalist political party called the American Third Position.^[12]

He and his wife now operate the Olympian Ranch in Gordon in Palo Pinto County in north central Texas,^[1] breeding miniature horses.

In 1957, the actor Hal Stalmaster played Richards as a teenager in an episode of the ABC anthology series Cavalcade of America.^[13]

See also[link]

• List of athletes on Wheaties boxes

References[link]

External links[link]

• Club Altius

This biographical article is written like a résumé. Please help improve it by revising it to be neutral and encyclopedic. (May 2008)

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (October 2010)

Peter H. Diamandis
Dr. Diamandis experiencing Zero-G in a Vomit comet
Born	(1961-05-20) May 20, 1961 (age 51) The Bronx, New York, New York, United States
Nationality	Greek-American
Education	MIT and Harvard Medical School
Occupation	Entrepreneur
Employer	X Prize Foundation
Known for	Personal spaceflight industry
Title	Chairman

Dr. Peter H. Diamandis (born May 20, 1961) is considered a key figure in the development of the personal spaceflight industry, having created many space-related businesses or organizations. He is the Founder and Chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation, an educational non-profit prize institute whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity.^[1]

His foundation is best known for offering the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private-sector manned spaceflight, a prize that was won in October 2004 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and famed aviation designer Burt Rutan with SpaceShipOne, the world's first non-government piloted spacecraft. More recently, Diamandis has created the Rocket Racing League. Born as a cross between Indy car racing and rocket-powered flight, RRL is developing a brand-new motor sport.

In addition to serving as chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation, Diamandis is also the CEO and co-founder of Zero Gravity Corporation, which offers parabolic weightless flights to the general public. He is also the co-Founder and a Director of Space Adventures, Ltd, the company that has flown eight private citizens on Soyuz to the International Space Station.

Dr. Peter Diamandis also wrote the book Abundance along with Steven Kotler. ^[2]

Notable achievements[link]

Diamandis also:

• Co-founded and is chairman of the Singularity University.
• Served as CEO of BlastOff! Corporation, which designed a private mission to land on the Moon as a mix of entertainment, internet and space. The company brought together talent from NASA/JPL and Hollywood.
• Served as CEO of Desktop.tv, a spin-off company from BlastOff! Designed to provide a global peer-to-peer television network for broadcasting unique content to the desktop.
• Served as Chairman of Starport.com [2], an Internet channel for space exploration for kids of all ages. The site represents over twenty astronauts and features space heroes, missions and simulations. Sold to Space.com [3].
• Served as President & EVP Business Development of Angel Technologies Corporation - Broadband.com. Angel Technologies Corporation is a commercial communications company developing wireless broadband communications networks (www.broadband.com).
• Co-founded Space Adventures Ltd. in 1994 [4], a leading space- tourism company. Space Adventures arranged Dennis Tito’s flight to the International Space Station in 2001 (the first space tourist).
• Served as Vice President of Commercial Space Programs for CTA Inc., a $190M-revenue space technology company responsible for developing new CTA commercial space initiatives in small satellite remote sensing and communications.
• Founded and served as Director of Constellation Communications, Inc. (CCI) in 1991. CCI was one of five low Earth orbit applicants designing a low-Earth orbit satellite constellation for voice telephony. Constellation plans to deploy an equatorial ring of 10 satellites to provide communications primarily to Brazil and Indonesia.
• Founded and served as CEO of International MicroSpace, Inc. (IMI) in 1989. IMI was an entrepreneurial space technologies company focusing on the provision of low-cost launch services (ORBEX launch vehicle program). IMI was awarded a launch services contract for 1 launch plus 9 options from Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) worth up to $125M. IMI was purchased by CTA Incorporated in 1993 and closed down in 1994 after SDIO canceled the contract.
• Founded and served as Managing Director & CEO of International Space University (ISU) in 1987. ISU is the world's leading graduate program for multi-national and multi-disciplinary study of space involving over 30 nations and 140 graduates per year. ISU has established a $30M graduate-level campus in Strasbourg, France. During the period 1992–1994, Diamandis served as Co-Chair of the ISU Business & Management Department. [5]
• Co-founded and served as director of the Space Generation Foundation, a non-profit organization established in 1985 to create, in all people born since the advent of the Space Age on 4 October 1957, a sense of identity — an awareness that they are born as members of a space-faring race. The Foundation supports numerous educational and research projects.
• Founded SpaceFair in 1983. SpaceFair is a national space conference hosted by MIT in '83, '85, and '87.
• Founded Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) in 1980. SEDS currently is the world's largest college- and high school-based student pro-space organization. [6]
• Co-Founded Planetary Resources Inc. in April 2012 with Eric Anderson, an organization dedicated to mining asteroids. Billionaire investors include Google's Eric E. Schmidt and Larry Page, as well as Ross Perot, Jr., Charles Simonyi and others. Advisors include filmmaker/explorer James Cameron and several renowned scientists.

Education[link]

Diamandis received undergraduate and graduate degrees in aerospace engineering and health, sciences and technology from MIT, where he became a brother of the Theta Deuteron charge of Theta Delta Chi^{[citation needed]}. He got an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

Awards[link]

• 1983 MIT John Asinari Award for outstanding Undergrad Life Sciences research.
• 1984 MIT William L. Stewart, Jr Award for the Founding of SEDS.
• 1985–1986 Harvard Med. School Student Research Grant American Heart Assoc.
• 1986–1987 Biomedical Research Support Grant supported by the NIH.
• 1986 Space Industrialization Fellowship presented by the Space Foundation.
• 1988 Aviation Week & Space Tech. Laurel in recognition of Founding ISU..
• 1992 Space Frontiers Foundation "Pioneers Award" Presented for cumulative work done in the commercialization and development of the space field.
• 1994 "Top-25 Young Stars of Space" award presented by the National Space Society for outstanding work done by space pioneers under the age of 40.
• "Konstantine E. Tsiolkovsky Award" presented by the Russian Government for the creation of ISU (along with T. Hawley and R. Richards).
• 2002 World Technology Award, presented by the World Technology Counsel
• 2005 Doctorate of Space Achievement (Honoris Causa) by ISU
• 2006 Robert & Virginia Heinlein Prize, for Advances in Space Commercialization^[3]

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Diamandis biography on Zero-Gravity website^{[dead link]}
• X PRIZE Foundation website
• Testimony by Peter Diamandis to U.S. House
• Wired magazine: Who needs NASA?
• BBC News: X-Prize man launches rocket race
• [http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/topic/excellence_in_philanthropy/extraordinary_feats_of_an_x-man Philanthropy:
• [7]

"Extraordinary Feats of an X-Man"]

• Star Trek-style 'tricorder' invention offered $10m prize

External links[link]

• Peter Diamandis talks about the X PRIZE and future of space travel (MIT Video)
• Peter Diamandis talks about the X PRIZE,Zero gravity,Rocket race league (open ssp08 lecture @ barcelona,spain) SSP08 podcast /rss feed
• TED Talks: Peter Diamandis on our next giant leap at TED in 2008
• TED Talks: Peter Diamandis on Stephen Hawking in zero g at TED in 2008
• Peter Diamandis' lecture at the Quantum to Cosmos festival at Perimeter Institute

Adrian Smith
Adrian Smith performing with Iron Maiden at Ottawa Bluesfest in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Adrian Frederick Smith[1]
Born	(1957-02-27) 27 February 1957 (age 55) Hackney, east London, England
Genres	Heavy metal, progressive rock, hard rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, bass guitar, vocals
Years active	1975–present
Labels	EMI
Associated acts	Urchin, Iron Maiden, The Entire Population of Hackney, ASAP, The Untouchables, Psycho Motel, Bruce Dickinson, Kai Hansen, Michael Kiske, Hear 'n Aid, Primal Rock Rebellion
Website	http://www.ironmaiden.com
Notable instruments
Jackson Adrian Smith San Dimas Lado Earth Gibson Les Paul Gibson SG Fender Stratocaster

Adrian Frederick "H" Smith (born 27 February 1957) is an English musician, best known as one of the three guitarists in the heavy metal band, Iron Maiden, for whom he regularly writes and, along with bassist Steve Harris, performs backing vocals on some songs.

Growing up in Camden, London, Smith gained an interest in rock music at 15 and formed a friendship with future Iron Maiden guitarist Dave Murray, who would inspire Smith to take up the guitar himself. Upon leaving school at 16, he formed his own band, Urchin, which he would lead until their demise in 1980. Having already been offered a position as their second guitarist the previous year, Smith joined Iron Maiden in November 1980, replacing Dennis Stratton. Following a short-lived solo project entitled A.S.A.P, he left Iron Maiden in 1990, forming his own group, Psycho Motel, before joining Bruce Dickinson's solo outfit in 1997. Along with Dickinson, he returned to Iron Maiden in 1999, after which the band gained renewed success, and recently formed the side project, Primal Rock Rebellion.

Biography[link]

Early years and Urchin: 1957—1980[link]

Born in Hackney,^[1] Smith grew up in Clapton^[2] where he purchased his first record, Deep Purple's Machine Head, while still attending school at 15. This led him to befriend Dave Murray,^[3] with whom he would form a band called Stone Free, featuring Murray on guitar, Smith on vocals and their friend, Dave McCloughlin, playing the bongos.^[4] After seeing the attention Murray got from girls,^[3] Smith was inspired to take up the guitar himself, starting with an old Spanish guitar, once owned by his brother, before purchasing an old one of Murray's for £5.^[5] His early influences included Johnny Winter and Pat Travers, which he claims made him a "melodic player" rather than a "speed merchant or a shredder" as he "was inspired by blues rock rather than metal."^[6]

Leaving school after completing his O-levels, Smith formed his own band, Evil Ways, including Dave Murray on guitar, which was later renamed Urchin.^[7] In this outfit, Smith began writing his own material, including "22 Acacia Avenue", which would later be included on Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast (1982).^[7] At this point, Murray left the band to join Iron Maiden and Urchin signed with DJM Records and released a single, "Black leather Fantasy", in 1977.^[8] Shortly afterwards, Murray joined Urchin on their next single, "She's a Roller", as he had been sacked from Iron Maiden after a row with then vocalist Dennis Wilcock, although he was reinstated six months later.^[8] Smith was also offered a place in Iron Maiden while they were in the process of signing with EMI in 1979, but turned them down to continue with his own band, a decision he would later regret as Urchin split up in 1980.^[9]

First tenure in Iron Maiden: 1980—1989[link]

Without a band, Smith was left "wondering what to do next," before he "literally bumped into Steve [Harris] and Dave," who asked if he might want to reconsider joining.^[9] After a successful audition,^[10] Smith debuted with the band on a German TV show, before setting out on a UK tour and recording the Killers album, released in 1981.^[11] Smith's first song-writing contributions appeared on The Number of the Beast, co-penning "Gangland" and "The Prisoner", as well as the previously mentioned "22 Acacia Avenue",^[12] after which he began co-writing many songs with singer, Bruce Dickinson, on the following Piece of Mind album.^[13][14]

Smith and Dave Murray combined playing dual lead guitars, creating what Allmusic calls "the most formidable twin-guitar attack in heavy metal, outside of Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing."^[15] Smith, along with Steve Harris, also provides the band's backing vocals, although he sang lead on "Reach Out", the B-Side to the "Wasted Years" single, featuring Bruce Dickinson on backing vocals.^[16] Originally written by guitarist Dave "Bucket" Colwell, whom he had worked with on The Entire Population of Hackney project, Smith would later sing "Reach Out" again for Colwell's solo album, Guitars, Beers & Tears, released in 2010.^[17][18]

Departure from Iron Maiden and other projects: 1989—1999[link]

While Iron Maiden were taking some time off in 1989, Smith released a solo LP with the band ASAP (Adrian Smith And Project),^[19] entitled Silver and Gold,^[20] which was a commercial failure in spite of a promotional club tour.^[21] Unhappy with the direction the band were taking for their next release, No Prayer for the Dying,^[22] Smith agreed to leave Iron Maiden in 1990 during the album's pre-production stages,^[23] and was replaced by Janick Gers.^[24] After releasing the experimental Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son albums in 1986 and 1988 respectively, Steve Harris had decided that the band should go for a "stripped-down," "street level" approach, which Smith thought was a "step backward."^[22] No Prayer for the Dying contained one last Smith song, co-penned with Bruce Dickinson, entitled "Hooks in You".^[25]

After leaving, Smith started a family with his Canadian wife, Nathalie, and would not play guitar again until he joined Iron Maiden onstage at Donington Park in 1992 to perform "Running Free".^[26] In the same year, after hearing King's X for the first time, he decided that he would "love to play in a band like that" and formed The Untouchables,^[27] which later became Psycho Motel.^[26] The band recorded two albums, State of Mind in 1996 and Welcome to the World in 1997, during which they supported Iron Maiden on the British leg of The X Factour.^[26] The project was put on hold, however, when Smith joined Bruce Dickinson for his 1997 album, Accident of Birth,^[26] after which he became a full-time member of Dickinson's solo outfit, embarking on two world tours and contributing to one further studio release, 1998's The Chemical Wedding.^[28]

Return to Iron Maiden: 1999—present[link]

Smith performing with Iron Maiden during the Somewhere Back in Time World Tour.

In 1999, Smith re-joined Iron Maiden, along with vocalist Bruce Dickinson, who commented, "When he left the band in 1990, I think everybody was a bit surprised at how much we missed him and certainly, I don’t think anybody had realized how much the fans would miss him - big time. I wouldn’t have rejoined Iron Maiden if he wasn’t in the band. I just don’t think it would have been complete without Adrian, and now, it’s great having three guitarists."^[29] The band embarked on a short tour,^[30] after which the new line-up's first album, Brave New World, was recorded with producer Kevin Shirley and released in 2000.^[31]

He remains in Iron Maiden to this day, with whom he has released three further studio albums, 2003's Dance of Death, 2006's A Matter of Life and Death and 2010's The Final Frontier. Smith claims that his guitar playing improved after leaving the band in 1990, in particular while working with Roy Z, from whom he "learned a lot about picking" and became "more disciplined."^[6] Since returning to Iron Maiden, he has also continued experimenting with tuning (which he began doing in Psycho Motel), stating that he has used drop D tuning in live renditions of "Run to the Hills", "Wrathchild", "The Trooper" and "Hallowed Be Thy Name".^[6]

Smith performs lead guitar, bass and backing vocals on the album Awoken Broken by his collaborative studio project with Mikee Goodman of SikTh called Primal Rock Rebellion. The title was released on 27 February 2012, while one song, "I See Lights", was released as a free download on the project's official website on 2 January.^[32]

Personal life[link]

Adrian Smith was born in Hackney Hospital and grew up a few streets away from his childhood friend, and current band-mate, Dave Murray.^[33] Smith, whose father was a painter and decorator from Homerton, was the youngest of three, with an older brother, Patrick, and a sister, Kathleen.^[1] As a child, he was "a Manchester United fanatic," although he would lose his interest in football once he got into music.^[1]

In his spare time, Smith is a keen angler, revealing that he used to take "worms and maggots" with him on tour,^[34] and was featured on the front cover of Angler's Mail on 25 August 2009.^[35] For over 20 years, he has been married to his Canadian wife,^[26] Nathalie Dufresne-Smith, who currently works for Maiden Flight, a cancer awareness/ patient rights organisation,^[36] and the pair have three children, Dylan, Natasha and Brittany.^[37]

Equipment[link]

Guitars[link]

Smith currently prefers to use his Jackson signature 'San Dimas' Dinky, although he has used a variety of guitars over his career, including several different Dean models,^[38] various Jacksons,^[38] including the Randy Rhoads model, Fender Stratocasters (including three Fender Floyd Rose Classic Stratocasters; one with an added Roland midi pickup), Gibson Les Pauls,^[38] Gibson Explorers, Gibson SGs,^[38] an Ibanez Destroyer,^[38] a Hamer Scarab,^[38] and Lado Guitars.^[38] On the A Matter of Life and Death DVD, he says the first decent guitar he bought was a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, which he paid £235 for when he was 17.^[39] He still uses it to this day,^[40] stating that "it's still probably the best guitar I've got".^[39]

Currently his touring guitars are: Gibson Les Paul Goldtop with Dimarzio Super Distortion in bridge position,^[40] his Jackson Superstrat 1986 prototype (which can be seen in the Maiden England video) with the pickguard changed to resemble his signature model,^[41] a Jackson Signature model with black scratchplate and maple neck,^[42] an early 70's Gibson SG,^[40] and another Jackson, inspired by his Les Paul Goldtop.^[43]

As of August 2007, Adrian Smith endorses Jackson Guitars, his first guitar company endorsement in over fifteen years. With Jackson he has an Adrian Smith San Dimas DK model.^[44] Prior to his endorsement, he was seen using other Jackson guitars, such as a King V during his time in Bruce Dickinson's solo band, before he went to Fender guitars. In August 2008, he had a Jackson guitar stolen from backstage at a show in Greece.^[45]

Effects, controllers and processors[link]

• Dunlop Uni-vibe Wah Controller^[46]
• Yamaha MFC10 Midi Foot Controller^[46][47]
• DigiTech Whammy Pedal^[46]
• Two Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamers^[48]
• Mike Hill B.I.S. Isolation hole^[46]
• Lexicon MX200 multi-effects unit^[47]

Amplifiers[link]

• Two 300-Watt Marshall 1960A Angled-Front 4x12 Cabs loaded with 75-Watt Celestion G12-T75 Speakers^[46]
• Two Marshall 30th Anniversary 6100LM 100-Watt All-Tube Heads^[46]
• Two Marshall DSL100 JCM2000 Amplifiers^[48]
• Marshall 9200 Rack Power Amp^[48]

Units and tuners[link]

• Shure U4 Wireless Receiver^[46]
• Whirlwind Multi-Selector 4-Channel Selector^[46]
• Dunlop DCR-1SR Rack Wah^[46][48]
• Peavey Tubefex Tube Preamp & Multi-Fx Unit^[46]
• Marshall JMP-1 Valve Midi Preamp^[48]

Discography[link]

Urchin "Black Leather Fantasy" (1977) "She's A Roller" (1977) Urchin (2004)- Best of/Compilation Iron Maiden Main article: Iron Maiden discography Killers (1981) The Number of the Beast (1982) Piece of Mind (1983) Powerslave (1984) Somewhere in Time (1986) Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988) Brave New World (2000) Dance of Death (2003) A Matter of Life and Death (2006) The Final Frontier (2010)

Iron Maiden portal Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Adrian Smith A.S.A.P. Silver and Gold (1989) Psycho Motel State of Mind (1996) Welcome to the World (1997) Bruce Dickinson Main article: Bruce Dickinson discography Accident of Birth (1997) The Chemical Wedding (1998) Primal Rock Rebellion Awoken Broken (2012) Guest appearances Earthshaker - Earthshaker (1983) - "Dark Angels (Animals)" (writing credits only)[49] Hear 'n Aid – "Stars" (1985) Rock Aid Armenia – The Earthquake Album (1989) – "Smoke on the Water" Iron Maiden - Live at Donington (1992) - "Running Free" Michael Kiske – Instant Clarity (1996) – "The Calling", "New Horizons" Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper (also released as: Welcome to Nightmare: An All-Star Salute To Alice Cooper) (1998) – "Black Widow" Dave Colwell - Guitars, Beers & Tears (2010) - Lead vocals on "Reach Out"

Notes[link]

References[link]