Richard René Silvin

Richard René Silvin (born May 16, 1948) is an American retired corporate executive, turned author and lecturer, who is best known as an expert on Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, architect Addison Mizner, and the SS Normandie.

Richard René Silvin at Le Rosey in 1966

Silvin was born in Bay Shore, New York to an American mother and a French father.

During the first six years of his life Silvin spent most of his time in Islip, Long Island, NY living with a nanny, Mary "Nonnie" Lee, while his parents were mostly in France. At age seven he went to Swiss boarding schools; first to La Clairière in Villars-Sur-Ollon (1955 - 1958), Switzerland, and then to Institut Le Rosey in Rolle and Gstaad, Switzerland, (1958 - 1966). At Le Rosey, Silvin both rowed and coached the younger rowing team. His team went on to become National Swiss Champions in 1966, a feat no school had ever achieved.

In 1966 Silvin moved back to the United States to attend college. He earned a BS from Georgetown University in 1970, and an MBA in both Finance and Hospital Administration from Cornell University in 1972. He worked at Friesen International, a hospital design and management consulting firm in Washington, DC from 1972 until it was acquired by American Medical International, Inc. (NYSE: AMI)in 1976. He rose to the head of the International Division of AMI, which owned and operated thirty hospitals in ten foreign countries.

Writing

After retiring from the hospital industry in 1998, Silvin started writing. He published I Survived Swiss Boarding Schools: An Arc To Triumph in 2006. The book received notoriety among Le Rosey alumni. Silvin's second book, Walking the Rainbow: An Arc To Triumphwas published in 2008, was also autobiographical, chronicling the AIDS crisis. Silvin's third book, Noblesse Oblige: The Duchess of Windsor As I Knew Her, was published in 2010, recounting Silvin's encounters with the widowed Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson.

In 2014 Silvin published his first coffee table book: "Villa Mizner-The House That Changed Palm Beach". The book explores the life and work of architect Addison Mizner, who was responsible for creating the Mediterranean Revival look in South Florida, including Via Mizner and the other vias around Worth Avenue in Palm Beach.

Silvin and his partner Dr. Robert Versteeg founded Silvin Books LLC in 2015, a full-service publishing company, and released a second coffee table book in 2016. Normandie: The Tragic Story of The Most Majestic Ocean Liner details the building of the French Line's magnificent Art Deco flagship, its four-year active working life, and its sinking in New York City in 1942, when she was being converted to serve as America's only large troop carrier.

Silvin Books has expanded into publishing other authors' works, as well as assisting lecturers in creating and presenting lectures.

Lecturing

Richard René Silvin lecture at Florida Atlantic University in 2015

Silvin started lecturing about the Duchess of Windsor in 2010 after the release of his third book. He increased his lecture opportunities when he added Addison Mizner's life and work as a lecture topic in 2014. In 2016, with the publication of the Normandie book, he added this topic to his lecture series. Additionally, he expanded the Normandie presentation by lecturing about the history of transatlantic ocean liner travel in general. He has lectured at several universities, as well as many venues in Key West, Palm Beach and West Palm Beach, Florida; Atlanta and Thomasville, Georgia; Newport, Rhode Island; and in North Carolina and Cape Cod.

Other

In 2010 Silvin competed in the Gay Games in Cologne, Germany. He entered the body building competition in the over-60 class, and was awarded the gold medal. Because of this win, he published an article in the Queer Times, called "The Road To Cologne".

In 2014, Silvin was appointed to the Landmarks Preservation Commission in the town of Palm Beach, which is a voluntary position. Members are voted in by the Town Council. He served on this commission as the Senior Altenate from March 2014 until March 2016, when he was voted in as a full member. In December 2016 he became the Landmarks Commission's vice-chairman.