Richard Harrington

Richard Harrington

Feb 11, 1930 - Nov 9, 2019

Richard Harrington, 89, died at his home in San Francisco, CA, on November 9, 2019.

Born in Oshkosh, WI, in 1930 to Marie C. Harrington and Richard Harrington, Sr., Richard grew up in Webster Groves, MO, and went to Harvard College ('51/'50) and Harvard Law School ('53) before serving in the U.S. Army in Germany. He moved to San Francisco in 1957, joined a legal practice, and married Judy Garland (Stanford '55) in 1958. They have four children, Mark, Chris, Kate, and Megan. Throughout his adult life Richard was an avid ballet dancer. He loved singing and rode a bicycle to work every day for decades. His legacy includes noteworthy legal cases and his strong and loving family.

His father, Richard Harrington, Sr., was an attorney. His mother, Marie C. Harrington, was a M.S. bacteriologist who chaired the St. Louis Dairy Council, worked to promote public health at U.C.L.A., and was a college counselor at Lowell High School in San Francisco. Richard's older sister Anne (d. 2009) graduated from the University of Chicago, was a journalist at The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and moved to San Francisco where she worked in advertising.

Richard's first job was as a messenger on roller skates at the Brown Shoe Co. Warehouse in St. Louis, MO. For four summers he worked at Chapman's Ice Cream Co. He matriculated at Harvard College in 1947, majored in social relations, and graduated cum laude in 1950. He completed Harvard Law School and served on the Law Review, graduating magna cum laude in 1953. Joining the Army, he trained at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, was posted to Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, and transferred to Heidelberg where he was a first lieutenant in the Joint Advocate General Command from April 1954 to December 1956. During those years he began his lifelong love and practice of singing and ballet.

Richard moved to San Francisco, CA and joined the law firm Athearn, Chandler and Hoffman in 1957. He became partner and stayed with the firm until his retirement in 2009.

He married Judith M. Garland on December 19, 1958. She is the daughter of Dr. Leo Henry Garland (1903-1966) and Edith Dohrmann Garland Levit (1906–1991).

Richard and Judith have four children – Mark (b. 1959), Christopher (1961), Kate (1963), and Megan (1964). Having been raised by a single mother, Richard embraced the pleasures and responsibilities of fatherhood with great joy, playfulness, and determination. The family spent many summers camping and hiking in the Sierra Nevada from 1968 onwards. As Richard's law practice flourished, Judith pursued paper-making, painting, print-making, collaging, and became a noted expert in James Joyce studies.

In 1965, Richard helped the State of California acquire the Montaña de Oro State Park.

In 1969 Richard was the lead attorney in Negre v. Larsen. Negre, then serving in the U.S. Army, wished to be discharged as a conscientious objector, maintaining that U.S. involvement in Viet Nam was an unjust war. The Army held that as a Catholic, Negre was not entitled to be a conscientious objector. The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to grant Negre religiously motivated conscientious objector status, 8–1. Justice William O. Douglas dissented.

Richard energetically defended the trademark of Anchor Steam Brewery in multiple jurisdictions. On behalf of the writer and playwright he established the William Saroyan Trust.

Richard was a vigorous defender of civil rights, for a time taught constitutional law at U.S.F. Law School, and was a regular correspondent with our nation's leading legislators.

Richard described his life in his Harvard class of 1951's 55th anniversary report ( 2006):

I practice law. I see children and grandchildren. I dance.

Richard retired and closed his law practice in 2009 – making a graceful retirement to spend more time with his family, continuing commitment toballet classes, and relaxation. Richard and Judith traveled often, sometimes in conjunction with annual James Joyce symposia, to visit family, or for pure fun. Among his greatest pleasures was spending time with Judith, theirchildren, grand-children, and most recently, two great-grand-daughters.

Richard faced the increasing challenges of his last decade with good humor, grace, and formidable will, enjoying his last ballet class three weeks before his death. Judith commends her four children's attentive loving care during Richard's last years and days. He died surrounded by them, at home, on Saturday morning, November 9. He is survived by his wife Judith, his sons Mark and Chris, his daughters Kate and Megan, his niece Katherine Cooney Ash, his nephew Gibbons Cooney III, his daughter-in-law Daphne Powell, his sons-in-law Cameron Coltharp and Jonathan Creighton, his granddaughter Erin Anna Coltharp, grandsons Ian Philip Bailey (m. Luann Green Bailey), Matthew Hunter Bailey (m. Shanea Frunze Bailey), Leo Benjamin Harrington, Peter Zachary Harrington, Gavin Mackenzie Coltharp, and his great-granddaughters Aniyah Grace Baker and Zia Liliko'i Bailey.

He donated his body to the University of California, San Francisco.