Richard was born in Fayetteville, a small village in south-central Pennsylvania, graduated from Chambersburg High School, attended Gettysburg College, and earned a bachelor's and master's degree from Shippensburg University. After teaching social sciences for thirty-seven years, he retired and fulfilled a lifelong dream of researching and writing. He previously published two Civil War historical biographies. For Honor, Flag, and Family depicts the life of the only Civil War general from Franklin County, Samuel W. Crawford. This renaissance man was more than a Union infantry commander; he was a scholar, a surgeon, a world traveler, an explorer, and a humanitarian for his family. An Irish Soldier's Patriotic Journey tells the story of John Doran, an Irish immigrant who served thirteen years in the Civil War and post-Civil War in the First Regiment of the U.S. Artillery. During the Civil War, he suffered from starvation, sleep deprivation, an eye injury, and a foot injury that caused a debilitating limp. When he returned to Meriden, Connecticut, to continue his career as an iron molder, his injuries and medical maladies haunted him until forced to give up manual labor. For the next twenty years, he struggled to receive a small invalid pension. Richard and his wife, Karen, witnessed the abuse of a young boy while shopping. The incident never left his conscience and led to the writing of his first novel, In the Shadows of his Mind.