A fourth-generation San Franciscan, Rick Laubscher has long been involved in historic preservation and beautification activities in the City.
A lifelong advocate of historic preservation, Rick serves as president of the non- profit Market Street Railway, a 1000-member advocacy and support group for San Francisco’s world-famous cable cars and the historic streetcars of the “F-line”, which is now the most popular transit line of its kind in America. Rick is widely credited as being responsible for making San Francisco’s historic streetcar operation a reality in the 1980s. He is the author of On Track, a book about San Francisco’s transit history published by Heyday Press. His historic preservation work has been noted in
numerous news media reports, including a “60 Minutes” segment. He currently serves on the Better Market Street Project Community Advisory Committee and is working with San Francisco Beautiful to enhance lower Powell Street.
He has twice served as a member of the board of directors of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and has also served as a board member of San Francisco Beautiful and SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research). Rick was honored with the “Silver SPUR” award for notable civic achievement in 2011. He served as founding chairman of The City Club of San Francisco, a successful 900-member business club occupying landmark Art Deco quarters in the heart of the Financial District.
Rick is owner of the strategic communications consultancy Messagesmith. Previously, he was a senior corporate communications and public affairs executive for Bechtel Group, Inc., the San Francisco-based engineering-construction organization. There, he personally handled dozens of sensitive community and public relations issues both for the company itself, and for its clients around the world, including such locations as Greece, Japan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Thailand, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Rick began his career with ten years as a broadcast journalist with stations including NBC television affiliates in San Diego and San Francisco, winning numerous reporting awards, including an Emmy. In all, Rick has reported from or performed corporate communications work in more than 50 nations.
Rick holds an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where he finished first in his class and won a Pulitzer Fellowship. He holds a B.A. in History with college honors from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
The proud father of three adult daughters, Rick resides in San Francisco.