Archives West Finding Aid

Leslie Lee Richardson was born in the small mining town of Wardner, Idaho, on April 3, 1898, the oldest son of Charles Richardson and the former Maude Cole. Charles Richardson did an adventurous turn on a whaler in the South Atlantic and Indian oceans before settling in the Pacific Northwest, first in Portland and then on a farm in Astoria, Oregon, where he commanded the U.S. Lighthouse Tender Columbine, providing navigational aids from Cape Blanco to Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

Lee Richardson and his brother Bill grew up "outdoors". As a young man Lee was exposed to the rituals and practices of hunting and fishing by his family, and particularly by grandfather Cole, who taught the brothers how to fly fish. Richardson developed an appreciative, if elegiac, eye for the landscape and fauna of the Western United States. This was the scene of both his earliest and many of his later hunting and fishing excursions.

Richardson attended Astoria (Oregon) High School in 1912; in 1914, he attended Jefferson High School in Portland, Oregon. His first job was as a twenty-five cents an hour "fish-slimer" at the Schmidt Cold Storage plant in Astoria. In 1918 he was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, where he remained until 1921. At Annapolis he was a member of the gold-medal winning 1920 U.S. Summer Olympic team in the 8-oar event. Richardson began his business career in San Franscico with the predecessor company of Owens-Illinois, eventually becoming Branch Manager of the Pacific Coast Division of the Owens-Illinois Glass Company in Seattle, Washington. In January 1925 he married Catherine Hagenbarth in Salt Lake City. They had daughters Caylee and Marilyn before Catherine died in 1942. Richardson never remarried.

Lee Richardson's outdoor writings originated in his early life on the land in the Pacific Northwest, but later pursuits would take him to hunting and fishing spots around the globe. His leisure time was devoted to rusticity and travel. Richardson viewed himself as a skilled, if refined, practitioner of the sporting life, a man who enjoyed the camaraderie of like-minded men, whether in elegant hotels or in the woods, lakes, streams, and rivers that provided the backdrop for their hunting and fishing excursions. His published and unpublished writing attempts convey his experiences as a traveler-outdoorsman, his early life, and his regional interest in the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, much of it told with wry humor. He documents life at "K-Bar-L" and "G.I. Ranch," favorite Western getaways for many years. His writing centers on the niceties and rigors of travel. He also stresses the anecdotal and naturalistic aspects of his hunting and fishing expeditions. Equally significant, Richardson affectionately documents the time he spent among the tight-knit group of wealthy men who shared his life-long passion for hunting, fishing, and travel.

Lee Richardson continued his life as an outdoorsman after his retirement to Lake Washington, Seattle, in 1962. While alive, he published two limited-edition volumes on fly-fishing: You Should Have Been Here Yesterday (Touchstone, 1974); and, Lee Richardson's British Columbia: Tales of Fishing in British Columbia (Champoeg, 1978). Another volume, Those Were the Days: Bird Hunting Memoirs (Caxton, 1985) was published posthumously. He was an honorary life member of the Fly Fishers Club of Oregon and a member of the Washington Fly Fishers Club of Seattle. Leslie Lee Richardson died in Seattle, Washington, on August 24, 1984.