Center for Reduction of Religious-based Conflict

OUR GENESIS

The Center became a reality only after long and searching investigation by its founder and current director, Terry O. Trowbridge.  But its seeds became embedded in his soul while he was living and working in Italy in 1978.  It was during an early weekend afternoon on a beautiful summer day while he was following the delightful local custom of taking a siesta, and reading an article about the conflict in Northern Ireland between the Protestants and Roman Catholics.  Pondering that article the question came to mind:  why were there such problems in the world?  Why hadn’t, during the ages, man or the religions themselves, been able to solve the problem of “religious-based conflict”?  Why the dichotomy of these conflicts, continuing and even expanding in an otherwise increasingly more civilized world?

Those seeds germinated through the years – during a half year’s legal project in Israel in 1979 observing first-hand the religious-based conflict in that part of the world; and later while continuously questioning why we (principally the religions themselves) had been unable to solve the problem.  Why could we not become tolerant enough to live with each other in peace?  Like so many others, Mr. Trowbridge believed that if we could just become more universally tolerant, we could solve the problem.  Tolerance, like Space in Jean Luc Picard’s travels through the universe on the spaceship Enterprise, was in the opinion of so many, “the final frontier”, the solution to all problems of conflict – religious-based and otherwise.  But, he soon learned that this was not the case.

Continuing with his practice of international law where disputes are resolved amicably, rather than as they are in the USA, where they are more often than not, resolved in the courts, Mr. Trowbridge realized that tolerance alone could never work.  Tolerance was not after all, as so many had for so long thought, the “final frontier”.  This became an obsession, and he wondered why no one had come to this conclusion before, and proposed what appeared to him to be the logical next step past tolerance.  Why did the world apparently remain in limbo about this problem?

So in 1999 Mr. Trowbridge founded the Center – beginning the process of sensitizing the people to the problem and offering a practical, realistic, unique approach through which they themselves could substantially reduce this conflict.

ABOUT THE TRUSTEES

James Clark (2000-2023)

Mr. Clark, an experienced businessman and manager, is President of North Bay Wholesale, Dade City, Florida. He is a long-time supporter of various charities and charitable organizations.

Joe B. Cox (2000-2017)

Mr. Cox was Chairman of the Board of a bank and served on the Board of Directors of a well-known Florida communications company. He has also been a practicing attorney in Naples, Florida for 35 years, having received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Tulsa School of Law and a Master of Laws from the University of Miami School of Law.

Mr. Cox has served his community by working with many charitable and volunteer organizations, including Naples Community Hospital, Community Foundation of Collier County, YMCA, Community School of Naples, Alzheimer’s Association, Greater Naples Civic Association, Forum Club, and Senior Friendship Centers.

More information can be found in his listings in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law.

Gisela L. Muschler

Ms. Muschler is a translator/interpreter of Spanish/Italian/German into English, a teacher of English to foreigners, as well as an experienced executive secretary, having served in the same capacity previously for both businesses and non-profit organizations.

Besides being a Trustee of the Center, she presently serves at its Secretary

Richard K. Rudolph (2000-2021)

Mr. Rudolph is an experienced senior executive with domestic and international experience in the investment banking and financial planning arena.  He previously served as Senior Vice-President for a major, international investment banking firm, and has held various positions from Retail Sales Manager to Head Office staff consultant with Esso Standard Eastern, the Asian affiliate of Exxon in such countries as Pakistan, Japan and Okinawa.

Mr. Rudolph is the founder, president and CEO of a new technology company, Universal Environmental Technologies, specializing in reducing contamination through environmental clean-up, using state of the art technology.

He holds Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Jurisprudence university degrees, the latter from the University of Virginia School of Law.  He is knowledgeable in Chinese (Mandarin), having studied at the Institute of Far Eastern Languages at Yale University.

Mr. Rudolph is a long-time supporter of important charitable causes affecting vast numbers of people.

This substantial management, marketing and business experience places him in good stead to act Trustee and serve as Vice-Director of the Center.

Terrell O’Dale Trowbridge, Jr.

Mr. Trowbridge, who studied law, is an entrepreneur and recent CEO and an international electronics company. He has vast international business experience.

Martin S. Trowbridge

Mr. Trowbridge is a highly experienced engineer, especially in the scientific field and has a Masters Degree in Chemistry as well. He is an internationally acknowledged expert in the field of geothermal energy and heating activity.

Terry O. Trowbridge

The Director and Founder of the Center, Terry O. Trowbridge, practiced international law for 25 years, working with businesses, governments and international organizations particularly in the arena of resolution of various kinds of conflicts by amicable means.  He is a member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the American Arbitration Association and has acted as arbiter for international organizations.

A resident of Naples, Florida, USA since 1970, Mr. Trowbridge has traveled extensively throughout the world, including living and working abroad in Europe, the Mediterranean Area and the Middle East.  His active military duty was with the US Marine Corps in the Far East during the Korean War, and thereafter with the US Coast Guard Reserve along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.  Later, he worked as a civilian in S. Vietnam during the early years of that conflict.  He is well acquainted with the conflicts of the world and their dangers.

Since 1984 when he first became interested in religious-based conflict, Mr. Trowbridge has spoken and written extensively on its causes, dangers and potential remedies.   He is the author of Beyond Tolerance (Why Tolerance Cannot Solve The Problem of Religious-Based Conflict And What The Real Answer Is), My Little Book of Big Sayings, as well as various articles on finance and law, including Banking and Gold_Post 1974.

For further biography, see Mr. Trowbridge’s listing in “Who’s Who in The World”, 13th edition, as well as in “Who’s Who in Finance and Industry”.