Ray Ring

Senior Editor

Richard McCullough, of Cheyenne, doesn’t have a college degree. He’s 53 years old, divorced, and his three children live in another state.

Despite his personal difficulties, he shows admirable character as “probably the state’s only full-time outreach worker for the homeless.”

A few excerpts from Jared Miler’s fine story in the Casper Star-Tribune:

McCullough starts his day at 7 a.m. and drives upwards of 60 miles to visit the bridges, tunnels and creek bottoms where the city’s homeless sometimes spend their nights.

He gathers leads on where to find the “hidden” homeless packed into cheap motel rooms and crashed out in area homes.

… He uses street lingo and a little self-taught Spanish to communicate with the transients and regulars who live around Cheyenne.

The trunk of his car is packed with toothbrushes, sleeping bags and food for those in need.

The work can be dangerous: McCullough has been threatened twice by drunken homeless men. But most of the time his clients greet him with a smile and a handshake.

… He coordinates with shelter, hospitals, detox centers, law enforcement, housing agencies and the clinic. He keeps an eye on the people who can’t get sober long enough to stay in the shelter.

The local hospital and jail sometimes turn to him for help with homeless patients and inmates. When the coroner needed to identify two homeless men frozen to death under a bridge last year, he called McCullough.

After four years on the job, McCullough earns only $27,000 a year. He hands out some of that cash to the homeless people he encounters.

It’s relevant to all of us — an inspiration and role model. Here’s the fascinating, uplifting story.