Paul Newman (left), Richard Rubin (right); taken in 2005 at Newman's home in Westport CT

I guess life is what happens while you are planning everything else. I didn’t invent that line—but it’s apt.

There have been many twists and turns since I departed Middle Path—some good, some bad, some awful. I will dwell mostly on the good.

At the top of the list are my five daughters and two granddaughters (three by the time this has been printed). One of them is a Kenyon Lady (Pilar Rubin Prime’00) now residing in N. Hampshire—and married into a family with two Boston area male Kenyon alums—neither one her husband.  Oh well, everyone cannot get into the place Philander built.

After Kenyon came Columbia grad school (International Affairs) where living in NYC was a separate education in itself.  Then it was off to law school at night (no breaks for one year paid sabbaticals in Paris or London seems de rigueur for today’s youth generation) in Washington, D.C. while getting my first daytime orientation to the real world (or was it surreal) as a lowly legislative aide to “Pete Williams” the junior U.S. Senator from New Jersey (my home state).

That was followed by a stint as an N.J. Community Affairs Director in Trenton, the Garden State’s Capitol, where I mainly became proficient at liars dollars—a game fanatically wagered by the local press corps which included brother Jim, a newly minted Princeton grad with whom I briefly roomed.

Next gig—Acting Director of the state’s Urban Affairs Council and with the changing of the guard (meaning a GOP governor booted the Democratic incumbent) I crossed the Hudson for a sudden job opening in Mayor John Lindsay’s Administration. But he had aspirations of going to the White House as many New York Mayors do, while mine was to complete my legal education at George Washington.

Soon after—and now married– I was hired as Legislative Assistant to Sen. John Tunney of California for my second turn on the Hill. That was followed by appointment as first Executive Director of the Navajo Nation Office of Congressional Affairs.

This job ended unpredictably and abruptly when a stabbing incident (mine) in sight of the Capitol dome left me temporarily unable to work and realizing it was time to head west.  With proceeds from a wrongful termination suit which I won as pro bono counsel for myself (easily my greatest legal victory) we purchased a home in 1975 on the shores of San Francisco Bay where I still live and run the business development/ public affairs management firm which I founded 25 years ago.

Along the way I married Marcia, my second (and final) wife, a formidable lobbyist who actually runs the city even if another person holds the title of Mayor.  I have tried to be of service to Kenyon many of these years—heading the Kenyon and Parents fund simultaneously at one point and as a Trustee until recently.

In my spare time I write a column for a local newspaper in Marin County and teach courses on the Presidential and Congressional elections at the University of San Francisco. My hobby is still politics—Governor Jerry Brown was at our home for a fund raiser during his campaign, and my wife and I remain active on the political circuit.

It’s been a wild ride—and it’s not over yet by a long shot.

Richard A. Rubin