Richard Fillmore Selcer, Ph.D., was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the same year Leonard’s installed the city’s first escalator and the Will Rogers statue in front of the complex named for him.

Selcer comes from a long line of educators. He has traveled the world. He’s been a high school basketball coach for 44 years; a YMCA Day Camp Director and a YMCA resident camp director and was given the nickname of “Ranger Rick” (borrowed from the National Park Service raccoon character),


Selcer taught the first (and so far, last) FW History courses at TCU in 1998 and 1999. They were full-credit courses that went on the students’ transcripts just like “U.S. History 101” or any other credit course. He was a “visiting professor.”


In 1973, while working on his MA degree at Austin College, he led the first and so far only student-directed Jan. Term – to Colonial Williamsburg, VA. for 3 weeks. The funniest part is all 8 or 10 students who signed up were girls. Prof. Myron Lowe, the Jan. Term supervisor and advisor, threatened him with dire consequences if he didn’t “bring ‘em all back in the same condition he took ‘em.” So, imagine 23-year-old Rick shepherding 8 or 10 eighteen- and nineteen-year-old girls around Williamsburg (they also went to Washington, D.C. for Nixon’s inauguration) for 3 weeks. You understand why Austin College has never done something like that again?
Selcer has written many historical books and articles about the history of Fort Worth and the West in general. He has several projects he’s currently working on. Selcer has received many awards too numerous to name. He also owns and operates Fort Worth Tours & Trails.