Rick served as President of Ford, Bacon & Davis, an affiliate of S&B Engineers and Constructors, for 29 years. He retired in 2020. After graduating in 1980, Rick attended graduate school and taught Chemical Engineering Lab I. In 1981, he took a job as a process engineer at S&B Engineers and Constructors in Houston. He was later promoted to the dual positions of process design manager, new technology, and process design manager, distributed control systems. Rick was one of only four contract chemical engineers selected to prepare high-density polyethylene licensing packages for Phillips 66. He reviewed and improved the package. He developed an automated process for Shell Research to create highly accurate, gas-phase, custom recipe feedstocks to feed 110 research reactors. Rick automated a pilot plant for the Library of Congress to deacidify books. He trained the operators, wrote the operating manual, and started the plant.

In 1991, Rick transferred to S&B affiliate Process Services, Inc. (PSI) in Baton Rouge as vice president, process department manager. Later that year, he earned a promotion to executive vice president, chief operating officer. He followed that with a promotion to president in 1992. In 1996, PSI acquired the assets of Ford, Bacon & Davis (FB&D). Rick served as president of both companies until he integrated PSI into FB&D the following year.

Rick is a licensed professional engineer in Texas. He is a past member of the Board of Advisors of the Construction Industry Institute (CII). He served on a CII research team to drive project performance improvements with innovative contracts. He is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Rick is a past member of The Houston Methodist Hospital System Cancer Center Task Force. He led the Houston Methodist Hospital Head and Neck Cancer Support Group.

Rick has been an avid scuba diver since 1976. He has made over 3,500 dives in several countries. He has been a diving instructor since 1978 and has taught scuba diving at all levels, including directing many instructor training courses. He served as the first chairman of the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) Services Group, the independent business subsidiary of NAUI Worldwide, a global diver training agency. In 2023, the association inducted him into the NAUI Hall of Honor.

Arkansas Academy of Chemical Engineers, 2014.