1951
born in Burlington and subsequently grew up in Graham, the second of four children born to Iva Ruth Buckner Albright of Graham & James Alexander Albright of Mebane. 

1969
Graduated from Graham High School.

1972 
Chapel Hill. A.B from UNC-CH, with a double-major in English and journalism. 

1973
Rocky Mount. Worked as publications assistant at Henry Thorpe & Associates. 
After his company folded, Bo Thorpe became leader of a local big band specializing in Kay Kizer-style material, and he remained active as a UNC football cheerleader. 

1974
Greensboro. Clerk, Waldenbooks. Part-time while studying at UNC-G.

1975
Greensboro. MFA from UNCG, in fiction writing.

1975-76
Winston-Salem. Assistant manager, Waldenbooks.

1976-78
Gastonia.  Manager, Waldenbooks.

1978-80
Athens, Georgia. Clerk, Barnett’s Newsstand. 

1980
Greensboro. Quality crew chief supervisor, US Census.
Traveled to Italy with University of Georgia School of Art’s Cortona program, staying for most of a month in a monastery above this gorgeous town.
     On weekends, we usually traveled to view art and architectural sites, and in July, we were in Rome, where, on the 2nd, I joined in with a crowd of locals to scale a fence and gain entrance to a Stranglers concert that had just commenced on the grounds of Hadrian’s Castle, near our hotel. Security came running, and some of us went back down while I and others continued with the scaling and made it safely inside, where we quickly blended with the mass. I didn’t know anything about the Stranglers, but in March 2022, the video for their first song on the set list that night, “Shah, Shah a Go Go” is chillingly apt, and in one of the more astonishing miracles (to me) of modern technology, you can run through a likely 18-song set list on setlist.fm and watch a video of each song. Forty-two years later, I remember mostly the energy of that night, and how efficiently as the concert ended the Italian police cleared the crowd and hushed us immediately from our cries of “encore”: white light spots at eye level, surrounding the stage and pointing directly out towards the audience, all simultaneously switched on so that the whole stage turned suddenly into a fiery ball of white, forcing us all to turn away and retreat, in a mostly orderly fashion. 

1980-81
Chalmette, Louisiana. English/U.S. History teacher, Chalmette High School. 

1981-2004
Greenville, NC. English Department, East Carolina University. Lecturer, assistant & associate professor.

1984
Edited two collections of poetry: Dreaming the Blues: Poems from Martin County and (co-edited with Luke Whisnant) Leaves of Greens: the Collard Poems.
     Traveled in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco.

1986
Began restoration work and research on “Pitch a Boogie Woogie”

1988
Wrote and co-produced (with Susan Massengale) the UNC-TV documentary Boogie in Black and White.

1991
Named founding editor of the North Carolina Literary Review

1991
Dillon, SC. Married Elizabeth Edgerton, from Chapel Hill

1999
Son, Silas James born in Greenville

2004
Moved to Fountain & with Elizabeth opened Fountain General Store

2012
Established R.A. Fountain, publisher

2017
Taught creative writing summer session for ECU in Prague

2018
Retired from ECU

2019
Elected to Pitt County Board of Commissioners

2022
Retired again

a more personal timeline, developed from the sorting out process of emptying boxes–a good way to bide retiring time.