Richard Drinnon (1925-2012) was an academic, author, and anarchist. Drinnon received his PhD in History from the University of Minnesota in 1957. In 1961, while a professor at the University of California, Berkeley it was discovered that Drinnon was the second target of a shooter attempting to kill those associated with communism. During the 1968 anti-Vietnam protests taking place at colleges and universities across the country Drinnon participated in a walkout on Vice President Hubert Humphrey's speech at Bucknell University where Drinnon spent most of his career as a professor of history. With wife and occasional co-author Anna Maria, Drinnon had two children, Donna and Jon. Drinnon died in 2012 in Port Orford, Oregon.

Drinnon's best known works include (1982), and (1987), working to chronicle the life of Myer, chief of the Japanese internment effort as the director of the War Relocation Authority. Other books include (1997).