Chair of the Los Angeles Taiwanese Club in 1970: on 1970-01-28 the LA club, together with the East Coast club (鄭義和) and Chicago club (林錦弘), co-initiated the founding of the Formosan Club of America (全美台灣同鄉會, founded 1970-07-01 in New York); 鄭義和 and 許和瑞 were elected first president and vice-president (per 吳木盛 and 何義麟).
Active in the UW-era Taiwan independence movement circle: named among those who actively participated and helped publish《Formosangram》, and later seated on the decision-making council (決策會議) of the restructured league alongside 陳以德、陳希寬、呂天明 (per 周烒明).
Also named in 黃根深’s LA-side account: 許和瑞 attended the monthly secret 台獨聯盟 meetings held at USC in the late 1960s alongside 賴文雄、蔡同榮、張燦鍙、王秋森、陳松真 and 黃根深 himself — meetings where each session drew reports back to the KMT consulate, and where 黃根深 compiled the two-issue newsletter《Formosa gram》(per 李木通、黃樹人).
Founding figure of TACL (台美公民協會): attendee at the 1982-01-21 SCTAI-convened meeting of 16 (called by vice-chair 許英智) that first resolved to form the league, and in 1984 one of the five founding-preparation committee members; with author 周實 he contacted attorney 廖重遠 to file the state registration (per 周實). The 1984 revival: when 沈英忠 was SCTAI president, he convened a 12-person seminar on 1984-12-01 at the Holiday Inn near Chinatown — attendees included 周實、楊子清、曾克中、李木通、楊惠喬、吳西面、楊嘉猷、洪義明、吳錫源、張文志、林洪權 and 許和瑞 — at which the group unanimously resolved to form a new preparation committee; 許和瑞 was named one of its five members with 周實、張文志、吳錫源、楊嘉猷, and the first committee session (12-13, in 許丕龍’s Monterey Park office, attended by seven with 吳澧培 present as 楊嘉猷’s delegate) adopted the TACL name and membership rules he and 周實 then registered with the state via attorney 廖重遠 (per 272; corroborated in English at 272 (EN)).
Founding member of the Los Angeles 生活座談會 (Life Seminar, founded 1971): 劉天良’s memoir names 許和瑞 among the original circle (with 陳慶霖、李英男、李隆吉、黃根深、陳明章 and others) who combined mutual education, 輪流演講 and leadership training with 同鄉會 organizing, and credits them with major influence on the LA Taiwanese Association from the late 1960s into the 1970s (per 劉天良).
Chapter-officer record: at the 1970 founding of the Formosan Club of America, the LA chapter under 許和瑞 was one of the 28 founding chapters, and the first officers elected were 鄭義和 (president), 許和瑞 (vice-president), 陳龍峰 (secretary), 吳希賢 (finance), 方政昇 (journal editor) (per 吳木盛; the English transcript of the same memoir confirms “Ho Rui Hsu… Cheng-Shen Fang as the journal editor” — 76 (EN)).
UCLA 台灣同鄉會會長 (c. 1967–1970): 黃根深’s memoir records that the UCLA club was first run by 陳銓仁 (陳隆’s brother, founding chair) and 許和瑞 then took over as chair in 1967, serving three years — in an era when 劉天良 recalls being club president was a 「殺頭生意」 few would take. As chair he hosted the LA club’s 1969 welcome ceremony for the champion Golden Dragon Little League team (金龍少棒隊), presenting gifts to each player (per 李木通、黃樹人).
Church founding circle: in early 1970, while serving as an officer of the LA 羅省教會, 許和瑞 (with 丁昭昇、陳銓仁、林妙珠、陳慶霖、盧淑貞) pushed to add a 台語堂; under 羅文牧師’s counsel they spun off to found the 台語福音教會 in October 1970 — the seed body of today’s 台福基督教會 network (per 台福傳播中心).
Daughter 許秀聰 (Martha Hsu), the first female Taiwanese-American graduate of West Point, has her own 1991 record at 137. 許秀聰 Martha Hsu VanDriel and a 2016 Who’s Who encyclopedia entry at [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/whoswho1070|TAH #1071. Martha Hsu 許秀聰]].
English transcripts of the source memoirs corroborate the above: the UW-circle/UFAI account at 81 (EN) and the TACL growth narrative at 272 (EN). The 81 (EN) transcript names the restructured UFAI decision-making committee as “Edward Chen, Michael S. K. Chen, Tien-ming Lu, Ho Rui Hsu, and the two Vice-chairmen” — HOLD: the EN↔ZH name mapping of the other members vs the ZH account (陳以德、陳希寬、呂天明) is not asserted here.
His own encyclopedia record: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/whoswho1071|TAH #1072]], published 2016-06-12.