Richard Thurgood
Richard embodies the entrepreneurial spirit. He started his first business when he was nine years old - trimming palm trees in his home town of Clearwater, Florida. Knocking on doors and offering to do the job for a few dollars a tree, he found the demand to be overwhelming. In his second year, he hired 3 of his friends and continued to grow the business until he started high school.
Richard graduated high school when he was 16 years old and gained employment as an iron worker building high rises to raise money for college. He aspired to be a veterinarian but after two years of college, he changed his major to engineering. Graduating Cum Laude, Richard started working for an international company where he landed a position in the Research and Development department. He traveled to over 30 countries throughout Europe, Asia, South America, and Canada providing training to corporate engineers and workers on systems he helped design and build.
After twelve years in R&D, Richard switched focus to software design and development. He launched two software ventures in the areas of interactive voice response and artificial intelligence while spending his leisure time learning to play the saxophone. He found this to be extremely cathartic as well as challenging.
Intrigued by the intricacies of this beautiful instrument, he purchased many horns and mouthpieces (both vintage and new) where he carefully studied each. Upon purchasing a vintage mouthpiece that had a huge impact on his overall tone, he began to probe into the world of mouthpieces in search of the holy grail...and if you knew Richard, you'd know that if he can't find it, he will make it!
Richard had the good fortune to have Erik and Brian reface some of his vintage mouthpieces and considers their work to be the best in the world. When he made a mouthpiece that he felt was worthy of their opinion, he sent it to the master craftsmen to evaluate...they loved it. Shortly thereafter, Mouthpiece Cafe was born.
