2011  Board Members

musicians and groups throughout the northwest and has been a strong supporter of the local music scene.

He currently can be seen performing with The Stilly River Band, The Splinters, The Sub Gringo Band, Lane Fernando, and various other artistic groups in the Skagit area. He is a co-founder of the Rick Epting Foundation and currently sits on the board as President.

He is a husband of 24 years and the father of a college student. He is the founder and owner of specialty construction, a carpentry / cabinet business that he established in 1990.

Again, Rick and the Eclectrix’s Love Time, John Reinhold’s Been There and most recently Li Gold’s CD Soul Divine, which I helped to produce as well as play.

Playing music on the road was my bread and butter for many years. I now hang my hat in Sedro Woolley with my wonderful wife, Jacky. We have raised four children and enjoy a bounty of grandkids. My current gig is working at the Kimberly Clark Company and I will be retiring in two years. Hello life! Rick devoted his life to getting folks out from in front of their televisions and out into the entertainment community. That’s where we at REF come in; providing a means to keep the art, theatre and music alive. Rick always harped on me about being more responsible; well, looks like I arrived. Thanks, Rick.

and songwriting have been my passion and is how I connected up with Rick.

I started writing songs in the late 60’s and played in Seattle in the early 70’s performing with the bands Lost Continent and Spectacle. I established my own recording studio Wired Homes Music in the mid-90’s as a tool for recording my songs and those of many friends and songwriters in the Northwest. The studio collective has thrived on the creative energy and friendships of local musicians. There have been recording projects by Rick Epting, Ira Fein, Li Gold, Wedge Michaels as well as 2 collaborative projects with Ron Weyers, Sunrise and Caught Up In A Web, and two more with John Savage, Walkin’ In The Sand and Old Moonshine. I currently play in The Holmes Shea Band and do recording studio projects as time allows.

Ranger has also donated his time to non-profit and charity events as a performance artist for over 35 years. From the mid 1970s to around 2004, he appeared as the clown and magician personality “Mr. Turquoise” at non-profit and charity events, as well as participated in dozens of local and regional parades.

In the early 1990s, recognizing the importance of ensuring the Earth’s clean water supply, Ranger founded, and then edited for a decade, American Sweeper magazine, which was the first U.S. publication to address the negative impacts of storm water runoff pollution generated from pavement and other impervious surfaces. Today, his WorldSweeper.com website is the world’s leading resource in that field.

In addition to actively writing on this topic for his website and other publications, Ranger provides counseling on the subject to businesses and municipal agencies around the U.S. and the world.

Ranger’s writing and Internet publishing work have garnered him 19 national APEX Awards for Publication Excellence since 1994, as well as other honors and accolades. He was the author of a book entitled “The Rise of Bio-Diesel,” which was published in 2008. In 2009 Ranger co-authored, with Dr. Jack Lessinger, a book on current socio-economic theory entitled “The Great Prosperity of 2020; Fall of ‘What’s in it for Me?’ — Rise of ‘What’s in it for Us?’”

An accomplished percussionist, Ranger has enjoyed a lifetime of wide-ranging musical experiences throughout the Pacific NW and around the world. He has played with numerous bands since the age of 16; currently, he plays with “The Poor Man’s Jug Band,” which appeared at the 2010 Skagit County Fair. Over time, Ranger has performed in Japan, China and Europe, as well as had a headline appearance in 2007 at Thailand’s 2nd World Music Festival.

In addition to his enduring interest in music, Ranger is a sculpture artist who has designed and built a number of large-scale, whimsical sculptures on his wooded Skagit County property. He is also involved in the U.S. art car community, and displays his art truck “Toynota” at numerous public events throughout the Pacific Northwest.