Early Years, Education, Family
Honaker was one of two children adopted by Hayward E. Honaker (1911–2001) and the former Faola Henderson (born 1917) in Laramie, the seat of Albany County in southern Wyoming. He has a sister (born 1954). The Honakers were of Swiss ethnicity; originally "Honegger", they came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the early 18th century. One of Honaker's ancestors was with George Rogers Clark in the march to Vincennes, Indiana during the American Revolution. The Honakers settled in western Virginia, and most Honakers still reside in either Virginia or West Virginia.
Honaker's paternal family came to Laramie in 1919 and operated a grocery store and meat market. His maternal family came to the Bighorn Country in 1915 and farmed sugar beets.
Honaker graduated in 1969 from Laramie High School and was the first member of his family to receive a college degree. He procured his Bachelor of Arts with honors in English and government in 1973 from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At Harvard, he and future U.S. Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, washed dishes together as work-study students. Still another classmate of Honaker's was the assassinated Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan. At Harvard, he was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club.
In 1976, Honaker obtained his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Wyoming Law School in Laramie. He worked his way through law school by serving as the night editor of the Laramie newspaper with the unusual name the Daily Boomerang. Honaker is recognized by Super Lawyers magazine as among the top 5 percent of attorneys in the United States. In 1989, he was licensed to practice before the United States Supreme Court.
Read more about this topic: Richard Honaker
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