Richard J. Corman

Richard Jay Corman (July 22, 1955 – August 23, 2013) was the founder and owner of R. J. Corman Railroad Group, a Nicholasville, Kentucky-based railroad services and short line operating company.

Corman was born and died in Nicholasville, Kentucky. The son of a state highway worker, he grew up in a home not far from his company's future headquarters in Nicholasville. He first went into business at age 11, when his paternal grandfather made him a 25% partner in a business hauling cattle, goods, and junk. According to a 2011 profile in Fortune, "high school utterly bored him"; he missed 105 of 173 possible school days during his senior year but still graduated in 1973.

In 1973, immediately after graduating from high school, he started performing railroad construction jobs for L&N Railroad with a single backhoe and dump truck. He quickly developed a reputation for his fast and thorough work. Within a few years, another opportunity came when friends in the rail industry asked his company to step in and take over derailment work after a Columbus, Ohio company that had done this work left the city. Throughout the next few years, Rick established a railroad construction company and then a derailment company under the banner of R. J. Corman. When larger railroads began contracting out their derailment and construction work in order to cut costs, Rick was able to provide them with the high-quality service that they were looking for. Though the early years of the business were financially difficult, Corman worked diligently to gain support for his companies. After Congress passed the Staggers Rail Act in 1987, Rick started a railroad company after he purchased the Bardstown Line. A year later, he began operating My Old Kentucky Dinner Train on that line using a car that had been part of the funeral procession for Dwight Eisenhower in 1969. Corman's company acquired more short lines over time, and was operating over 600 miles of track when Corman died in 2013. Rick went on to establish six more companies and acquire eight more short lines and before his passing in 2013.

Although Corman technically retired in 1997, he remained intimately involved in his company's day-to-day affairs for the rest of his life. He spent his final years planning for the company's future after his death. While he received many purchase offers, he refused them all out of loyalty to his employees. His company continues to provide a variety of services for the railroads.

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