Died: March 4, 2011
Richard was a member of Morse College and majored in economics. Upon graduation from Yale in 1966, he accepted a Fulbright scholarship to study political philosophy and economics in Berlin. (Richard had gained admission to the Yale Law School but did not enroll, opting instead for the Fulbright scholarship.) Following his studies in Berlin, Richard attended Oxford University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and first became interested in Scientology. While studying for a Ph.D. in philosophy at Rockefeller University in New York, he also pursued his study of the scriptures and religious philosophy of the Scientology religion. He returned to England in 1973 and decided to devote himself to the ministry of the religion, eventually becoming the senior minister of the church’s spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, FL, a position he held for 25 years. As one of his primary duties in that position, he oversaw the administration and technical quality of the spiritual counseling being provided by the church’s ministers all over the world. His son Jesse (jfkreiss@mailpac.net), who would welcome receiving photos and remembrances of Richard from Richard’s friends at Yale, reports that Richard was personally known and loved by tens of thousands. Richard is survived by his wife Cala, daughter Rebecca and son Jesse. In the last weeks of Richard’s life, when he was battling melanoma, Jesse reports that Richard was able to reconnect with his Yale Russian Chorus friends from his undergraduate days at Yale and was delighted to receive an outpouring of heartfelt communication from them.