Dick Gilbreath is the University's cartographer (map maker). This is his second, or third, career and his most rewarding by far. He was trained in the traditional (photo-mechanical) cartographic method at the University of Kentucky under the tutelage of Gyula Pauer. He has worked as a cartographer for the Kentucky Revenue Cabinet, the University of Kentucky Appalachian Center and National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. Dick has since evolved into a first rate digital cartographer. His best known cartographic achievement is the Atlas of Kentucky, a work which comprised the production of more than 750 maps/graphs/charts/diagrams and which took over five years to complete. Dick's wife, Donna, an accomplished cartographer in her own right, worked with him for three of those five years. In addition, she assisted him in the production of cartographic figures for the recently published books: Southeast Asia: Diversity and Development, Worlds of E-Commerce, and Japan in the 21st Century: Environment, Economy, and Society. The couple continue to collaborate on projects whenever they can.

Dick also teaches the cartography curriculum at UK while managing the Cartography Lab. His students often work on projects with him and subsequently take positions in cartography, GIS, or geographic education upon graduation. Dick loves making thematic maps of all kinds, whether it be a single map for a faculty member's journal article, or a series of maps for a book. For example, he has made several maps for the Kentucky Department of Parks (site maps), the United States Forest Service (trail maps), National Council for Geographic Education (site guide), Knight-Ridder newspapers Sunday supplement (continental maps), Rector-Hayden Realtors Lexington map (street map), and others. He has designed several book covers for his clients. He has recently finished work on cartographic illustrations for several books published by the University Press of Kentucky, maps of Greece for FOCUS magazine, wall maps for the Appalachian Math-Science partnership, maps/figures for several journal articles, some conference posters, and a few dissertation maps. As you can see Dick keeps busy. It should be noted that Dick loves Macintosh computers and defends them against all comers. In his spare time he manages a few hours with his wife, Donna, their three children, their yellow lab, Sunny, and a few thousand novels.