Richard died of a heart attack June 28, 2011. at his home in New York City.
Raised in New York, Richard graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, where he was a member of the Cum Laude Society. At Princeton, he fenced on the freshman team, served as faculty captain of the Campus Fund Drive and took his meals at Charter Club. He majored in mathematics, writing his thesis on “The Problem of Pulsating Stellar Models.”
Within two years of our graduation, Richard published four papers in the prestigious Astrophysical Journal, completed a Ph.D. at Harvard, and became a permanent member of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where he worked the rest of his life. He became a scholar of the classical mold, able to read original papers in several languages. He published nearly 200 of his own papers, mostly in astrophysics and solar physics. In the last two decades, he concentrated on climate science, especially investigating ancient writings to extract information on climate change throughout recorded history.
Richard’s brother, Hedley Stothers ’68; his nephews Josh Nims, Seth Nims, and Hedley Stothers III; and his nieces, Ruth Stothers Dolan and Sarah Stothers, survive him. His sister, Susan Stothers Nims, predeceased him. The class extends condolences to all the family.