Dudley Richards

Richards was the son of Byron Richards Jr. and Ruth Ross Richards. He grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where he began skating on a local pond with other children in the neighborhood. He joined the Providence Figure Skating Club and began entering skating competitions at age nine. When he was eleven or twelve, he took the train to Boston to take lessons at the Skating Club of Boston. His drive to skate was innate and unprompted by his socially privileged family, who wondered why he was so interested in the sport.{{cite web |author= |date= June 23, 2024|title= Oral History: Interview With Sue Abbe|url=https://www.skateguardblog.com/2024/06/oral-history-interview-with-sue-abbe.html?m=0 |website= skateguardblog.com|location=Nova Scotia, Canada |publisher= Skate Guard Blog|access-date=April 1, 2025}}{{cite news|url= https://www.espn.com/espn/eticket/story?page=110215/skatingcrash&redirected=true |title= Still Crystal Clear |first=Bonnie D.|last=Ford|newspaper=ESPN|date=|access-date=April 1, 2025}}

He attended Providence Country Day School in Providence, Rhode Island, and graduated at seventeen. He then completed a post-graduate year at Belmont Hill School in Belmont, Massachusetts, where he was captain of the sailing team and led his team to victory as skipper of the sailboat in a sailing competition for students at schools in the Eastern United States. He was a longtime friend and former college roommate at Harvard University of Senator Ted Kennedy, with whom he enjoyed sailing during summers spent in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts when they were boys. Kennedy admired Richards' discipline. Richards got up at 4:30 a.m. every morning to go to the skating rink for practice. When he was 17, Richards broke his neck diving off a pier while rough housing with other boys and spent five years recovering, though he resumed competitive skating with Albright as his partner the year after the accident.{{cite book |last=Nichols|first= Nikki|author-link= |date= November 25, 2008|title= Frozen in Time: The Enduring Legacy of the 1961 U.S. Figure Skating Team |url= |location= |publisher= Clerisy Press |page=103-104|asin= B0066A8R1C}}

Richards escorted Albright, who was three and a half years his junior, to a dance at Harvard when she was 14 and taught her how to drive.{{cite web |author= |date= June 15, 2022|title=Paying Homage: Albright and daughter experience emotional visit to '61 monument|url=https://www.usfigureskating.org/news/article/paying-homage|website= usfigureskating.org|location= |publisher= U.S. Figure Skating|access-date=April 1, 2025}} Their skating partnership ended abruptly when Richards "hit a rut during a toss" while they ran through a skating routine and Albright fell and lost consciousness. Albright's father refused to let her continue as a pairs skater and told Richards and Albright to focus on skating individually. Both Albright and Richards were later successful as singles skaters, but Richards preferred pairs skating.

Richards finished third in the men's singles division at a competition that determined which American skaters would compete at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway. Only the first and second place winners, James Grogan and Hayes Alan Jenkins, qualified to compete since Dick Button, the 1948 national champion, had already qualified for the Olympics. Richards lost his chance to compete at the 1952 Olympics, which had been one of his dreams.{{cite web |author= |date= January 7, 1952|title=Richards Loses Chance for Olympic Skating Team Berth|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1952/1/7/richards-loses-chance-for-olympic-skating/|website=thecrimson.com |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States |publisher= Harvard Crimson|access-date=May 3, 2025}} In 1953, after Button turned professional, Richards qualified to compete in the men's singles division at the world figure skating championships in Switzerland.{{cite web |author= |date= January 17, 1953|title=Richards Named to Ice Squad|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1953/1/17/richards-named-to-ice-squad-pdudley/|website=thecrimson.com |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States |publisher= Harvard Crimson|access-date=May 3, 2025}}

In May 1951, Ted Kennedy asked Richards to help him cheat on a Spanish exam by taking the exam for Kennedy. Richards refused to cheat and Kennedy persuaded another classmate to take the exam. Both Kennedy and the student he had persuaded to take the Spanish exam for him were caught and were asked to withdraw from Harvard, though they were told they could later reapply for admission.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=k9dQAAAAIBAJ&pg=7104%2C5727961 |newspaper=The Free Lance-Star |location=Fredericksburg, Virginia |agency=Associated Press |title=Ted Kennedy Explains Incident at Harvard |date=March 30, 1962 |page=14 |archive-date=February 24, 2021 |access-date=April 2, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224173725/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=k9dQAAAAIBAJ&pg=7104%2C5727961 |url-status=live }} Richards graduated from Harvard, where he majored in history, in 1954 and then spent two years in the U.S. Army. He was stationed in Garmisch, West Germany and skated at a nightclub for $50 per night. The Army also taught Richards how to help people defect. He was able to make arrangements for one or two people to defect during his time in the Army.

When he was discharged from the Army, he later worked as a real estate executive, first for Nordblom and then for Honeywell, which was located next to the Skating Club of Boston. He worked as a writer for the company. He continued pairs skating in his mid-twenties because he wanted to compete in the Olympics. Richards, a Republican, voted for Richard Nixon in the 1960 United States presidential election but could not resist John F. Kennedy's invitation to visit the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port on election night on November 8, 1960. Richards also attended the opening of a skating rink at Hyannis Port that was sponsored by the Kennedy family.

Richards was friendly, kind, and made other people feel included. He was also attractive to beautiful women. On one Christmas Eve, Richards and his good friend, Ron Ludington, set up a Christmas tree at the Vinson-Owen household because they knew Maribel Vinson would not have made time to decorate for Christmas. Vinson, her mother and daughters enjoyed decorating the tree but left it standing until the following April, when Richards and Ludington returned to remove it because it had become a fire hazard.{{Cite web | title= The Day The Music Stopped | date=February 21, 2011| work=Sports Illustrated | first=E.M.| last=Swift | url=https://vault.si.com/vault/2011/02/21/the-day-the-music-stopped | access-date=2025-05-03}} His relationship off the ice with Owen developed into a romance during their final months. Friends noted the way they held hands and how they gazed at one another. Richards' sister said his family noticed the amount of time Richards spent with Owen and saw the romantic attraction between them, even though Owen was much younger than Richards. His sister believed that Richards and Owen would have retired from skating soon after the world competition if they had lived. Richards had just turned 29 and his family believed it was time for him to focus on things other than skating. Richards had planned to propose marriage to Owen after the World Championships in Prague.

Richards was en route to the world competition when the plane he was on, Sabena Flight 548, crashed near Brussels, Belgium, on the morning of February 15, 1961, killing all on board including the entire U.S. figure skating team. He was 29 at the time of his death.

After the crash, Richards was identified by the Saint Christopher medal he wore around his neck. His friend from Harvard, Fred Heller, who was in Europe at the time, recognized the medal he had given Richards after the baptism of one of his sons and which Richards always wore in recognition of the honor of becoming the godfather to Heller's sons. Richards was a Congregationalist.

A memorial service for Richards was held in Barrington, Rhode Island.{{cite web | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-1961-greg-and-nathalie/27935313/ | title=1961 Greg and Nathalie Kelley | work=The Boston Globe | date=March 1961 | page=8 }} He was interred at Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island.

In 1962, Richards' brother, Ross Richards, established the Dudley Shaw Richards Memorial Award to help aspiring figure skaters at the Providence Figure Skating Club in Rhode Island. The Dudley S. Richards Memorial Ice Skating Rink opened in Providence in 1969 and remained open until 1979, when it was sold to United Skates of America, which operated roller skating rinks.{{cite news|url=https://www.rihhof.com/dudley-richards-arena-born-out-of-one-dedicated-couples-passion-for-figure-skating/ |title= Dudley Richards Arena – born out of one dedicated couple's passion for figure skating

|first=|last=|newspaper=rihhof.com|date=August 2, 2020|access-date=March 31, 2025}}

On January 28, 2011, Richards was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame along with the entire 1961 World Team.{{Cite web|url=http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2010/09/14/Skating-hall-to-honor-1961-US-team/UPI-67101284491857/|title = Skating hall to honor 1961 U.S. Team}}

(men's singles)

(pairs with Maribel Owen)

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{{Portal|Biography}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20151105071302/http://www.usfigureskating.org/Shell.asp?cat=7&id=206&sid=32399 U.S. Figure Skating biography]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110629140055/http://www.boston.com/sports/packages/usfigureskating/stories/122900_shattered_dreams.htm Remembering Flight 548: Shattered dreams]
• {{Find a Grave|5603}}

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Category:American male pair skaters

Category:American male single skaters

Category:Figure skaters at the 1960 Winter Olympics

Category:1961 deaths

Category:Olympic figure skaters for the United States

Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Belgium

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:1932 births

Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1961

Category:Sportspeople from Providence, Rhode Island

Category:20th-century American sportsmen