Richard grew up in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. He attended Oakville Elementary School and quickly developed a name for himself as academic's came very easy for him. He went on to attend Mayfield Junior High School and Mayfield High. Richard received his BS in Physic's from Carnegie Melon University and his PhD in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley. 
In the mid-80's he joined an X-ray group working on the solar flare data from the Hard X-ray Burst Spectrometer (HXRBS) on the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM).  Since then he had been involved in the analysis of data from almost every space mission that has made high energy solar flare observations.  His biggest role had been the scientist responsible for the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) data analysis software.  His main skill was the ability to combine scientific understanding with efficient computational techniques.

In the mid 80's Richard moved to Maryland where he lived until his passing.

In high school Richard graduated as class Valedictorian, played football, track, was a member of the Latin Club, Student Council, National Honor Society, "It's Academic" Captain, National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalist. 

Richard grew up watching the Cleveland Brown's and Cleveland Indians. Both teams were very important to him and he watched every chance he had, from where ever he was.

During college he picked up tennis and enjoyed playing for many years.  He loved to cook and spend time with family and friends. His work enabled him to travel all over the world and he had many friends all over the world.  

One of Richard's biggest joys and disappointments was being on the TV show Jeopardy.  It did not turn out the way he had hoped it would and as a friend of his recently said, " I am sure he's found Alex and is arguing his case".