Curiously enough, R. Richard “Dick” Drechsler learned to sail at age 13, the same year he entered the land and resort industry by working at a summer job. At one point in his earlier years, his interest in politics led him to serve on the national presidential campaign staff of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Until he retired in 2007, Dick operated a resort development company based in Scottsdale, Arizona and was owner/president of a technology company, ResortWiFi. During his long and successful career in the resort industry, Dick and his wife, Sharon, enjoyed sailing their Catalina 36 sailboat in Southern California whenever possible. The advent of neck and throat cancer in 2005 greatly reduced Dick’s professional and leisure activities as he underwent an intensive program of chemotherapy and radiation. Radiation had so damaged his throat that he is sustained by a strictly liquid diet. The idea of sailing again kept Dick going during the lowest periods of his therapy. Today, a cancer-free survivor, Dick is living out his dream to set forth on the cruising life, currently cruising in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Yet, Dick still vividly remembers how he longed for a day on the water during many dark hours. His dream to offer that opportunity to everyone suffering through cancer was the impetus for the creation of the Sail Through Cancer Foundation.  

Bluewater Cruising Association Coastal Award - 2008
Catalina Offshore Cruisers Hall of Fame - Inducted 2008