Richard Wallace Ziebarth

July 6, 1940 – March 18, 2024

Richard W. Ziebarth was born July 6, 1940 in St. Paul, Minnesota to Wallace William and Florence Ida Jauss Ziebarth. His father was active in the Postal Union and was a supporter and friend of Hubert Humphrey. He was later joined by a sister, Mary, who apparently survived him. Richard was admitted to Yale from Central High School in St. Paul, where he gained some renown as an All-State quarterback and All State doubles tennis player. He became a History major, a field in which he excelled as a Ranking Scholar, and Scholar of the House for three years. His academic acumen was capped by his election to Phi Beta Kappa.

Richard moved from Farnam, with his roommate R.B Reynolds, to Branford with floormate T.M. Triplett, and W. W. Millard ’63 as roommates. He actively supported Branford’s sports, serving as captain of its football team and playing on the college’s “B” basketball, handball and softball teams. He also carried work responsibilities as a scholarship holder for four years.

Because a career in law was his objective, he applied to and was accepted at Harvard Law School, where he roomed with YC62 and Harvard law classmates Bob Beynart, Jim Keaten, and Bruce Willis. Upon receiving his LLB in 1965, Dick stayed on at Harvard for an additional two years, teaching law and acquiring an LLM. He also married Wellesley graduate Janet Bogardus during that time. Dick then went to work in NYC for the firm of Davis, Polk, & Wardwell, where classmate Don Pillsbury was already well established. After a year or two, Dick became disillusioned with the practice of commercial law and went back to graduate school in history at Stanford. While there his wife left him.

Somewhere during that period he went to live in Berkeley and became involved in radical politics, becoming one of the avowed democratic socialists elected to the Berkeley city council. He worked six hours or so a day painting houses and spending the rest of his time on politics. After a brief but “torrid” (Dick’s term) courtship he married Mary-Louise Ruth, who at the time was driving local trains.

Sometime later on he began teaching at Hastings College of the Law (now UC College of Law San Francisco), specializing in international law with an emphasis on economic development in China. China had apparently become Dick’s last best hope for a modern and prosperous but civilized form of government. He suffered a heart attack one day while lecturing to one of his law classes and decided it was time to slow down. He and Mary-Louise moved up to the Sierras post-retirement, probably after 2000. He died in the East Bay area March 18, 2024. Ed Kelly and Jim Keaton shared that “Dick was a terrifically smart, funny, and serious human being, and it was a privilege to know him.”

Tom Triplet, Ed Kelley and Jim Keaton contributed greatly to this obituary.

— John D. Hatch III