25 Facts About Dudley Richards

Dudley "Dud" Shaw Richards was an American figure skater who competed in men's singles and pairs.

In 1961, Owen and Richards won the gold medal at the US Championships and finished second at the North American Figure Skating Championships.

Dudley Richards grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where he began skating on a local pond with other children in the neighborhood.

Dudley Richards joined the Providence Figure Skating Club and began entering skating competitions at age nine.

Dudley Richards's drive to skate was innate and unprompted by his socially privileged family, who wondered why he was so interested in the sport.

Dudley Richards attended Providence Country Day School in Providence, Rhode Island, and graduated at seventeen.

Dudley Richards 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.

Dudley Richards 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.

Dudley Richards got up at 4:30 am every morning to go to the skating rink for practice.

When he was 17, Dudley 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.

Dudley 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.

In May 1951, Ted Kennedy asked Dudley Richards to help him cheat on a Spanish exam by taking the exam for Kennedy.

Dudley Richards refused to cheat and Kennedy persuaded another classmate to take the exam.

Dudley Richards graduated from Harvard, where he majored in history, in 1954 and then spent two years in the US Army.

Dudley Richards was stationed in Garmisch, West Germany and skated at a nightclub for $50 per night.

Dudley Richards was able to make arrangements for one or two people to defect during his time in the Army.

Dudley Richards continued pairs skating in his mid-twenties because he wanted to compete in the Olympics.

Dudley Richards attended the opening of a skating rink at Hyannis Port that was sponsored by the Kennedy family.

Dudley Richards was friendly, kind, and made other people feel included.

Dudley Richards's sister believed that Richards and Owen would have retired from skating soon after the world competition if they had lived.

Dudley Richards had just turned 29 and his family believed it was time for him to focus on things other than skating.

Dudley Richards had planned to propose marriage to Owen after the World Championships in Prague.

Dudley 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 US figure skating team.

Dudley Richards was interred at Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island.

On January 28,2011, Dudley Richards was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame along with the entire 1961 World Team.