Draft:Richard Michael Romm

• Comment: Almost all the sources are not reliable. Ibjaja055 (talk) 02:43, 30 May 2025 (UTC)

• Comment: In accordance with Wikipedia's Conflict of interest policy, I disclose that I have a conflict of interest regarding the subject of this article. Surfer7315 (talk) 19:14, 28 May 2025 (UTC)

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Richard Michael Romm (born January 11, 1978) is an American historian, author, communicator, and educator. He specializes in early American history and has contributed to public relations and communications in various sectors, including finance, international development, politics and government, and cultural heritage.

Early life and education

Richard Michael Romm was born on January 11, 1978, at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Jeffrey Philip Romm (born September 23, 1949), an English teacher and adjunct professor of education, and Lois Janet Romm (née Damens) (born June 10, 1951), an elementary school teacher. He has a brother and a sister, Hannah Carly Romm.

His paternal grandfather, Albert Romm, served as a paratrooper with the 13th, 17th, and 82nd Airborne Divisions during World War II. He fought and was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, earning three battle stars for the Ardennes, Rhineland Offensive, and Central Europe campaigns. He was decorated with the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Presidential Unit Citation, and the Belgian Fourragère for valor, among other medals. He served with the Occupation Force in Berlin, Germany, until December 1945. His paternal grandmother, Sylvia Romm (née Polnerow), served in the United States Department of the Navy in Washington, D.C. during World War II as an expediter. Her role involved coordinating the movement of critical materials through various government departments including sending materials to Oak Ridge, Tennessee for the development of the Atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project.

His maternal grandfather, Stanley Damens, also served in the United States Army during World War II and earned a Master's in Education from the University of Pennsylvania and owned Palmer School in Philadelphia. His maternal grandmother, Alice Damens (née Kramer), was born in the Bronx and was a businesswoman in Philadelphia; her father, Max Kramer, manufactured tarpaulins, and her mother, Helen Kramer, was a seamstress in the Garment District, Manhattan.

Romm was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes on June 6, 1994, at the age of 16. His family has been involved in fundraising efforts for the Denise Faustman Immunobiology Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital and Breakthrough T1D, formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Romm has expressed skepticism about the likelihood of a cure, citing the high profitability of ongoing treatment. In 2024, global diabetes-related health expenditures surpassed one trillion US dollars for the first time.

Romm earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History with a minor in Political Science from Rutgers University–New Brunswick, where he served as President of the Rutgers Association of International Relations and was a political cartoonist at The Daily Targum, the official student newspaper. He earned a Master of Arts degree in American History from Rutgers University–Camden.

Historical scholarship

Romm authored America's First Whaling Industry and the Whaler Yeomen of Cape May: 1630–1830 (2011), which challenges the commonly accepted narrative that American whaling originated in New England. Instead, Romm argues that the industry began in the Delaware Bay with a Dutch whaling colony called Zwaanendael in Lewes, Delaware, in 1631, and later moved to Cape May, New Jersey, where yeoman farmers became whalers in the transatlantic trade.

A rising historical scholar with a special interest in early Philadelphia, Romm educated the Right Angle Club on the history of the Schuylkill Fishing Company of Pennsylvania, also known as the State in Schuylkill, the oldest continuously operating social club in the English-speaking world, founded in 1732.

Politics and government service

Romm served as press secretary to prominent New Jersey Democratic leaders, including Joseph J. Roberts Jr., Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly (2006–2010); Dana Redd, New Jersey State Senator (2008-2010) and Mayor of Camden, New Jersey (2010–2018); and Nilsa Cruz-Perez, then Assemblywoman and later New Jersey State Senator (appointed 2014, elected 2015); and Legislative Correspondent to Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (1996-Present). He also volunteered on the Al Gore 2000 presidential campaign and was offered a place at the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California but did not attend because it coincided with a family trip to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.

Corporate and development communications

Romm is currently the Senior Communications Advisor at Jada Fund of Funds, a Saudi Public Investment Fund company, where he helped to bring the first SuperReturn to Saudi Arabia.

He has contributed to communications efforts for Red Sea Global, previously known as The Red Sea Development Company, and the Royal Commission for Al-Ula, supporting projects aligned with Saudi Vision 2030.

Previously, Romm worked as Global PR and Communications Manager at the Future Investment Initiative Institute, dubbed "Davos in the Desert," a leading global platform for investment and innovation.

He has also worked with Siemens Saudi Arabia heading corporate communications, the World Bank writing on economic development topics, and the International Finance Corporation editing periodicals about news in international project finance.

Education work and advocacy

Romm holds a teaching certificate in New Jersey and was a long-term substitute Social Studies teacher in Gloucester City, New Jersey. He also worked with the Alliance for Excellent Education in Washington, D.C.

He advocates for a content-rich curriculum that openly addresses the contradictions and hypocrisies in American history, especially regarding freedom and unfreedom. Romm supports reparations for descendants of enslaved people, noting that historically, reparations were paid to white slave owners by insurers like Lloyd's of London after abolition for loss of property.

Personal life

He has a son, Henry Albert Romm (born January 7, 2020).

Romm regularly attends Meeting for Worship at the Horsham Friends Meeting House in Horsham, West Sussex, England. He is a past member of the Racquet Club of Philadelphia, where he met his ex-fiancée, artist Noelle "Noli" Wister, a descendant of American writer Owen Wister and British actress, abolitionist and poet Fanny Kemble.

Selected publications

• Yankee Slavery: Unearthing Northern Slave Plantations and the Crisis of America's Cultural Amnesia (work in progress)
• America's First Whaling Industry and the Whaler Yeomen of Cape May: 1630–1830 (Lambert Academic Publishing 2011)
• The World Bank in Action: Stories of Development (2002)