Richard Dale Schnell, presently Chief Physician of Rio Hondo Mental Health Services in Norwalk, California, has had a varied and distinguished career in education and medicine. Born and raised on a farm near Edgeley in 1930, Dr. Schnell attended VCSC, graduating magna cum laude in 1952. He worked his way through college and also participated in religious and campus organizations. Dr. Schnell majored in chemistry, mathematics and physics and then taught in public schools before attending North Dakota State University, from which he received an M.S. degree in zoology in 1957. He then attended Baylor University College of Medicine from 1957-62. While at Baylor, he wrote several scientific papers and received many honors and awards, among them the Kelsey-Leary Scholarship Honor Award, election into the Alpha Kappa fraternity, and was awarded the U.S. Department of Public Health Externship in psychiatry and internal medicine. Dr. Schnell spent three years in psychiatry at the University of Southern California, continuing to publish scholarly articles while meeting his residency requirements. He then practiced in several hospitals, clinics and mental health organizations prior to his affiliation with the Rio Hondo Mental Health Service. As chief physician, Dr. Schnell has the responsibility for administrative and clinical operations of the facility, whose staff is over 60 with a budge in excess of three million dollars.