James Lorin Richards

Who was James Lorin Richards?

James Lorin Richards was an American financier and industrialist.

Richards was born on a farm in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, the son of Rodolphus Palford and Sarah E. Richards. At a very early age he displayed exceptional business skills and a hearty work ethic. He never finished high school. Instead, in 1875 at age 17 he moved to Boston to learn the wholesale tobacco trade under a family friend. From tobacco, to railroads, shipping and shipbuilder, public utilities, real estate, oil & gas, banking, finance, insurance, manufacturing and mining, his business acumen, salesmanship and innovation were on par with some of the greatest wealth-builders in modern history.

After a career in financial dealings alongside commerce and industry titans including Robert Winsor, Arthur T. Hadley, Andrew W. Mellon, William Rockefeller, Louis Brandeis, Charles W. Leonard, J.P. Morgan and Joseph B. Eastman, he was also credited in 1920 with the founding of New England's first oil refinery and blast furnace, in 1908 the creation and implementation of the first Employee participation profit sharing, from July 1932 to December 1947 he sat on the advisory board of the country's first mutual fund, and was first to recommend employees have representation on company boards. James L. Richards revolutionized coal transportation, using newly designed collier ships instead of traditional rail lines. When threatened with coal mining strikes, he discovered coke was as good or better in the water gas generators. His philanthropy, although mostly anonymous, was far-reaching, including generous contributions to the Boston Police Dept. and Northeastern University.