John Richards

1947 - 2025

John Horace Richards

1947-2025

Salt Lake City, UT-It is with love and sadness that we announce the passing of John Horace Richards, aged 78, who died peacefully on Oct. 21, 2025, surrounded by his family.

Born in Salt Lake City on Feb. 26, 1947, John was husband to Cynthia Cherrington Richards, father to Heather, Tamara, Jennifer, Daniel and Samuel, and grandpa to 12 grandchildren.

John was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Horace Sunderlin Eldredge Richards and Beth Robinson, as a sibling to an older sister, Susan.

He spent many of his early years in the military education system, including living in Tokyo, Japan, and Stuttgart, Germany as his father was posted to different locations during a military career. John later attended Highland High School in Sugarhouse, the neighborhood where he first met his wife Cynthia, and then studied English Literature with an emphasis in Creative Writing at the University of Utah. After graduating, he continued his education with a Trade Tech scholarship learning the printing trade, subsequently working at the University of Utah Publications and Printing running a small offset press. He then spent the next 30 years working in various positions including a pressman, campus photographer, customer service director, until he retired in 2005 from the position of Director.

John had many interests and his intellectual curiosity played out in all aspects of his life – work, religious and personal. He was a painter, writer, musician, photographer, and tinkerer, stopping these activities only when late-stage Parkinson's made it impossible to continue. Even then, he shared these passions with those around him – with musical instruments, books and art being part of everyday family life right up until his death.

He also shared his love for the outdoors with his family – having worked summers at Jackson Hole Golf Course during his university years he continued to return back to the Tetons every summer for hiking, fishing and backpacking trips with his wife and children - instilling both his reverence and knowledge of science, history and nature. Hikes often included impromptu geology lessons, pauses to sketch the scenery, or identify plants. Though he had no interest in most sports, he loved cycling. Not only would watching the Tour de France be part of every summer holiday, his children remember his commitment to riding to work every day – leaving the house in lycra and a helmet, far before it was a popular thing to do.

John had a reaching impact on the lives far beyond his immediate family. A meaningful period of his life were the years he spent as Branch President of the City Center branch of the Salt Lake County Jail where he taught non-denominational religious lessons each Sunday in the early 1990s. He repeated his mantra of 'do good, be good' as parting words to any of his children as they left the house, and this pragmatic but humanistic approach to life was what he shared with those around him.

John will be remembered for his intellectual curiosity and the talent he had for instilling a reverential importance to the things in life that make us all human: music, nature, art, language, philosophy, and the capacity to love and be loved. He will be missed by his family, and all those whose lives he touched.