Richins, Ken (Kenneth Alfred), 1950-
Biography
Kenneth Alfred Richins was born in Sacramento, California, in 1950. After his parents died in a traffic collision in 1957, he moved to Loomis, California, with his grandmother. He received a bachelor’s degree from Conquerors Bible College in Portland, Oregon. After after missionary work in the in the Caribbean, he became a dorm counselor for a youth rehabilitation center in Martell, Nebraska, in 1971. He married Lucinda "Cindy" Springer in 1973, and they later had three children. The year after they married, the couple moved to Salem, Oregon, where Richins became a bus driver for Cherriots Bus Company. In 1982, he became financial secretary of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1594, and then he served as vice president from 1984 to 1985. In 1991, he was elected recording secretary of Local 1594, and he became interim president the next year. After Local 1594 merged into ATU Local 757 in Portland in 1993, Richins was appointed to the executive board.
Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; information provided by Richins in his interview; “Transit union members elect new leadership,” Northwest Labor Press, June 22, 2012 (accessed August 19, 2025) https://nwlaborpress.org/2012/06/atu-13/.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Oral history interview with Ken Richins
Oral history interview with Ken Richins, conducted by James R. Kelsheimer-Sevich in four sessions, from May 24 to June 21, 2010, for the Oregon Labor Oral History Program. Richins discusses his involvement with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1594 in Salem, Oregon, which later merged into Local 757 in Portland. He also speaks about his personal journey away from Pentecostalism.