Meet Richard N. Van Wickler

Served as the superintendent of the Cheshire County Department of Corrections from June of 1993 to June of 2020 (27 years). His corrections career began in 1987 at the Merrimack County NH Department of Corrections. The Cheshire County NH Board of Commissioners recruited Superintendent Van Wickler in 1993 to assume responsibility of the Cheshire County Jail and House of Corrections, which faced significant litigation in Federal Court and to revitalize an agency that was in need of training, structure and professionalism.

Rick served three years in the active component of the U.S. Army and retired in December 2006 after 26 years of military service. His last assignments were as a senior military academy instructor and ROTC instructor for the University of New Hampshire.

Rick has extensive background in training and management, which led to the founding of Chameleon Consulting of New England in 2001. He has provided numerous presentations on the management of aggressive human behavior in many jurisdictions of NH, Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Rick's knowledge of adult corrections has been tremendously enhanced by his attendance at the National Institute of Corrections in Colorado and as an adjunct faculty instructor for 14 years on the subject of “American Corrections” for Keene State College. Rick has been an observer to the United Nations in Vienna, Austria participating in discussions about International Drug Policy Reform. He has presented at the National Press Club in Washington DC several times. He has testified before the House and Senate of NH on numerous occasions as well as to committees of the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa, Canada. Rick is the former Chairman of the Board for “Law Enforcement Action Partnership” an international law enforcement speaker’s bureau for Criminal Justice Reform and is a current Board member of the NH ACLU.

Superintendent Van Wickler holds a BS in Management from Franklin Pierce University and is a co recipient of the President's Community Partner Award from Antioch University Graduate School. Mr. Van Wickler was selected as Correctional Superintendent of the year in 1997 and 2011. He also received NH’s “Profile Service Award” for his many contributions to County Government in 2009.

Rick Van Wickler’s book “FREEDOMS GUARDIANS” was released in December of 2022 which is a work on his reflections of significant issues in our current culture, the management of aggression and what we all need to be “FREE FROM” in this modern age building back our civility one independent thinker at a time.