Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Queens, Richard attended Stuyvesant High School, then joined the US Army. He served more than 33 years, 26 of them overseas in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Italy, Germany and Turkey. After retirement from the Army, and following 3 years in Saudi Arabia as an operations manager for Global Associates, he founded the adventure travel program in Hawaii for Mountain Travel (now Mountain Travel Sobek). For the next 7 years he led adventure tours in Hawaii, Europe, and the Far East for Both MT and REI.

While in the service, he received a BS degree in military science from University of Maryland, and after retirement, MA degrees in English and history from the University of Hawaii. He enjoys writing and hiking-related travel, and belongs to three hiking clubs in Hawaii.