Richard Topus

Richard Topus (1924–2008) was an American pigeon enthusiast and business executive. During World War II he trained war pigeons for the United States Army.

Biography Topus was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 15, 1924. He grew up in Flatbush where he fell in love with pigeons at an early age and befriended several local pigeon handlers who taught him to handle the birds. In 1942 he enlisted in the United States Army Signal Corps as a pigeoneer. He was stationed at Camp Ritchie in Maryland - one of several camps where birds were raised and trained for use as messengers.

After the war Topus earned a master's degree from Hofstra University. In the late 1950s he joined Friendship Food Products, a dairy company based in Maspeth, Queens (which would later become Friendship Dairies, a subsidiary of Dean Foods), eventually rising to the position of executive vice president for sales and marketing. In 1948 he married Jacqueline Buehler.