Frank K. Richardson

Frank Kellogg Richardson (February 13, 1914 – October 5, 1999) was an American attorney and Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court.

Early life and education Born in St. Helena, California, Richardson graduated from Germantown High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended the University of Pennsylvania his freshman year but transferred to Stanford University, where he earned an A.B. with distinction in political science in 1935 and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

After being admitted to the California State Bar in 1938, Richardson entered private practice in Oroville sharing office space with retired Butte County Judge Hirman Gregory. He trained at Camp Ritchie in its Military Intelligence Training Center and is considered one of the Ritchie Boys. In 1944, Richardson, a second lieutenant in Army Intelligence, was assigned to the top secret Ultra Project at Bletchley Park (north of London), where he learned that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was scheduled to address the British Parliament on the status of the war effort in the Balkans. In 1970, Governor Ronald Reagan appointed Richardson as Sacramento County Superior Court's presiding judge. In October 1971, Governor Reagan appointed Richardson Presiding Justice of the California Third District Court of Appeal. Reagan had wanted to name Richardson Chief Justice of California that year, but Chief Justice Donald Wright refused to retire because he was "frightened" of the prospect of Richardson as Chief Justice. In November 1978, Richardson stood for reelection and was retained.

While on the court, Richardson wrote 212 dissenting opinions and 182 majority opinions.

Richardson unsuccessfully attempted to convince his fellow justices to move the Supreme Court from its traditional headquarters in San Francisco to Sacramento, the state's capital city.

Post-judicial career Richardson retired from the Court on December 2, 1983. Upon leaving the court, he served as a distinguished visiting professor of law at Pepperdine University School of Law in the spring 1984 semester. Then, President Reagan appointed Richardson as solicitor to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Richardson left the post in 1985 and became a Nixon Fellow at the Whittier Law School that year. Their marriage would produce four sons and last for 56 years until Frank Richardson's death in 1999.