Roy Mundy Davidson Richardson Papers

Roy Mundy Davidson Richardson was born in Martinsville, New Jersey, on June 19, 1895. After attending Bound Brook High School, he went to Rutgers University where he was active on the debate team, in gymnastics and as editor of the yearbook, The Scarlet Letter, and the student newspaper, the Targum. He was also a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity.

Richardson graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Rutgers in 1915 and subsequently attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He briefly left Oxford during World War I to serve in the American Volunteer Ambulance Corps in France, but returned to graduate with both a B.A. and M.A. in jurisprudence.

Richardson was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1923 and lectured on International Law at the Brooklyn Law School in 1924 and 1925. He joined the legal firm of Root, Clark, Buckner & Ballantine in 1925 and in 1934 became a partner in the firm, which also included ex-Governor Thomas Dewey, under the name Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer and Wood. Richardson headed the firm's Paris, France, office from 1931 to 1934 at the time of the investigation of Ivar Kreuger's infamous Match Company scandal, an international pyramid scheme involving millions of dollars.

Following the death of Kreuger in 1932, Richardson went to Stockholm to act as special counsel for the Irving Trust Company of New York, which was trustee in the bankruptcy of the International Match Corporation. He spent over two years in Sweden investigating Kreuger's books and records and assisting an international committee which was formed to reorganize the Kreuger interests.

Upon his return to the United States in 1934, Richardson lived in Brooklyn, New York, and continued to practice his specialties of international and corporate law from his office in Manhattan. He joined the Rutgers University board of trustees in 1936 as an alumni trustee and was elected a life trustee at the end of that five-year appointment.

Richardson was a Republican candidate for Congress from Brooklyn in both 1944 and 1946 and was a member of the New York Electoral College. He briefly left his law firm in 1950 to serve as a Judge in Kings County Surrogate Court, returning to his practice in 1951.

Also in 1951, Richardson was awarded an honorary law degree from Rutgers University.

Richardson served as vice president and president of the Rutgers University Fund Council and as the chairman of the Greater New York Region of the All-University Development Committee. He was elected chairman of the Rutgers board of trustees in 1962 and was elected to the Rutgers board of governors in 1964.

Throughout his life, Richardson was also extremely active in other professional, political and civic organizations: He was a member of the American Bar Association and served terms as vice president of the New York Bar Association and president of the Brooklyn Bar Association. He served as a trustee for the Union Square Savings Bank, the Packard Collegiate Institute and the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn. He was on the board of directors for the Brooklyn Bureau of Social Service, the National Council on Alcoholism and the New York Central Branch YMCA, and served on the board of governors of the Brooklyn Heights Association, which he also served as president. He was the treasurer of the Kings County Republican Committee, a Presbyterian elder and received 50-year awards from both the masons and Delta Upsilon.

Roy M.D. Richardson died of a heart attack at his home in Brooklyn on December 31, 1968.