March's CTE Teacher of the Month

Rick Parham grew up in Buncombe County in the community of Alexander. As a young man loved hunting, fishing, and boating in the French Broad River Valley. He graduated from North Buncombe High School in 1984 and AB Tech in 1985 with a degree in Heating and Air Conditioning.

Rick started working in construction as a fourteen-year-old summer worker on an addition to Enka High School, his first assignment was hauling dirt with a single axel dump truck and continued to work each summer in construction while in high school. After graduating from AB Tech, he worked in the heating, cooling, and plumbing industry and soon thereafter started working for “Boone Associates” who was an architecture and construction company in Weaverville, NC. In 1987 Rick began a career in residential and commercial construction with Boone Associates and was assigned a job in Robbinsville 1992. In 1994 Rick obtained his General Contracting License and started “RDP Construction Incorporated.” In 1995 Rick married Alicia and moved to Robbinsville in 1996 and started working remodeling and constructing homes and small commercial jobs. Rick and Alicia have two children Brylee and Baylee.

In 2007 Rick began working at Robbinsville High School as a Carpentry Instructor completing required course work and OSHA certifications as a provisional entry to obtain his teaching license. Rick loves to be able to show students new things and watch them progress from the first day in class to the last day. Rick says he is always excited to hear of his past student’s successes and seeing them grow as men and women.

In Ricks free time he enjoys spending time and traveling with his family, hunting with friends, gardening, studying and recreating 18th century art, and anything outdoors.