By Eva Frederick
Throughout his life, Richard Couch struggled with a fear of public speaking. Now an assistant pastor, he’s overcome his fear for the job he feels called to do.
Couch married his high school sweetheart, Cathy Scantling, in 1970, when he was a junior in high school. The couple left school before graduating and moved to Brownwood, where Couch began looking for a job. He worked a few different places, before deciding he needed a little extra education for the jobs he wanted.
“I eventually took a computerized accounting course at Texas Commercial College here in Brownwood,” Couch said. “That got me a job at TWT Molding.”
TWT Molding specialized in making picture frames and shipped orders all over the state of Texas. “I started out in receiving, where we received the molding and supplies all the way from Japan and places like that,” Couch said. “We had to check it in and get it stocked.”
He eventually worked his way up to a position in the accounts payable department, where he helped order all the merchandise to sell in the shop, such as nails or other picture-hanging supplies. Couch stayed at TWT molding for more than six years before he was laid off.
As he was looking for another career, Couch took an interim position at Sportsman Center, a bait and tackle shop near the lake in Brownwood. After six months of working there, he received a call from Norton — now Saint Gobain — about an open position.
He interviewed and got the job. During his two years at Norton, Couch worked in the section of the facility that made rolls of sandpaper discs. “We packed the rolls into boxes and got them ready for shipment,” he said.
After a little over a year, Couch found himself getting tired of the long commute from Brownwood to Stephenville, so he and his family decided to move back home. “People say, come home to your hometown, and we did that,” he said. “But we’d been away for so long. So many things have changed and so many people we knew had left.”
Couch found he missed Brownwood, so the next year he and his family moved back, and Couch started looking for a job closer to there. “That’s when I went to work for the city of Brownwood,” he said. “I started out as part time there, hoping it would turn into full time, which it did.”
The job was for the wastewater treatment plant, where he started as an operator. In that position, he had to monitor the flow of the wastewater coming into the plant, and do daily testing to make sure the chemical levels were correct. He soon worked his way up to a position in the testing lab, and then eventually accepted a position as the industrial pretreatment coordinator.
While in that job, he started two initiatives to help the community better care for its water supply. One project involved working with the police to collect unused medications, to prevent people from flushing them down the toilet. “When that medicine hits the wastewater treatment plant, our system doesn’t take it all out, so therefore it gets discharged, and all the fishes start changing,” he said. “You’ll get fish on Prozac, and things like that.”
The program was anonymous, so that everyone could feel comfortable dropping off their waste. “We would take people’s medicines and drugs that came in to us, no questions asked,” he said. “If someone dropped off an illegal drug no one would see it.”
He also started a program to help local restaurants dispose of their grease safely, without clogging any pipes.
Couch continued working for the City of Brownwood for 20 years, and retired in 2016.
Since his retirement, he’s developed a new career of sorts: after a few years of training, he is now an assistant pastor at Lakeview Baptist Church. “I felt God telling me I needed to do something with my life besides secular jobs,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
If you’d asked Couch a few decades ago if he could ever see himself being a pastor, he would have said, ‘absolutely not;’ not because his faith wasn’t strong — God has always been an important part of Couch’s life — but because Couch has long had a fear of public speaking.
He first began preaching in 2014, and in 2017 he started working in earnest. “Coming out of my shell to stand in front of people and speak has changed my life,” he said.
In an average week, he has Bible study on Wednesdays, and spends the rest of the week preparing for Sunday’s sermon, visiting church members, or taking care of other official duties. Since the pandemic, many of these duties have been difficult, but Couch and his congregation have pushed through.
“We did not close our doors, or stop any services during the pandemic,” he said. “We told the people, if you want to come to church, we will be having church, if you want to stay home, we understand. We left the choice up to them.”
When he’s not working, Couch enjoys spending time outside hunting, or spending time with his family. The Couch’s had three children, Monty, Timothy and April. Monty lives in Pflugerville and has four children, April lives in Edmond, Oklahoma and has two daughters, and Timothy was killed in a motorcycle accident.
Couch’s wife Kathy passed away in 2018, after they had been married for 48 years. “My wife has always been an inspiration to me, because of what she has done for me,” he said. “We put each other through school. She put me through the commercial college. And after I got through that, I put her through beautician school. That’s how a marriage should work.”
His advice to Dublin graduates is to trust in a larger plan. “Whenever you think that you can’t do it, keep on truckin’,” he said. “God has a plan for your life. Doesn’t matter if you’re saved or not; God has a plan.”
Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen.com.