PROFILE
PERSONAL
Richard "Rick" Crouch was born in Cape Town South Africa in September of 1960. Rick is a descendant, on his mothers side, of the Field family who settled in Kloof in the 1880's, and whom Filed's Hill was named after. Rick attended Mansfield High School and completed his mandatory national service in Jozini Military Base in 1982. After which, because of his opposition to the apartheid system of the time, he settled in the United States.
Rick has been married for 13 years to Michelle and they have two boys, Spencer aged 12 and Jared aged 9. Michelle and the boys are born and raised in Orange County California. The boys now attend Winston Park Primary School and are adjusting well to life in South Africa, they both "love it here".
PROFESSIONAL
While in the United States Rick founded Option-One Investigations which became one of the largest and best known private investigation agencies in Los Angeles. Rick's clients list was a who's who of California celebrities and politicians, because of this he became known as the "PI to the stars". Rick and his company also worked on many high profile criminal cases including murder cases. Rick assisted the local law enforcement and the FBI in a number of cases including tracking down wanted fugitives that had fled to foreign countries and was successful in locating and returning to justice many of these fugitives from justice which included drug dealers, murderers and child molesters.
POLITICAL
In 2008 Rick returned to South Africa in a bid to give back to the country of his birth with the specific intent on being involved in local politics. Rick was actively involved with the Republican Party in the United States for more than 20 years, Rick and his wife were invited the the inauguration of then President George W. Bush, served on many committees and received numerous awards:
Appointee at Reagan Congressional Commission (2008)
National Leadership Award (2004)
Citizen of the Year (2004)
Business Advisory Council Honorary California Chairman (2003)
Business Advisory Council Businessman of the Year (2003)
Congressional Order of Merit (2006)
Rick served on The National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals -s.jpg)
which issued a comprehensive set of improvement standards. Its structural proposals evolved from prior concepts, models and trends. However, they exhibited interesting variations and emphases. With respect to court and correctional systems, the Commission took a stronger stand on statewide unification and administration than virtually any prior group. In prosecution and defense, the Commission resisted pressures toward centralization (other than central financing) and largely endorsed the current local autonomy of service delivery, particularly for prosecution. In the highly fragmented police area, a multifaceted program of small department consolidation, local and regional combination of services and functions, and state level staff support was offered. This was essentially "mainline" in reform wisdom.
Rick served as Honorary Chairman of the Business Advisory Council. The Business Advisory Council is a small, prestigious group of conservative businessmen and women, who have joined with the NRCC to advocate a progressive, conservative, pro-business agenda. The Business Advisory Council allows for these individuals to pool their expertise and know-how to bring some common business sense to Washington.
The Business Advisory Council functions independently from any other organization within the NRCC, but has direct reporting lines to Chairman Tom Cole and other party leaders.
Read more on Rick's background at the following public profiles.
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