Early Life and Education
Bill Richardson was born in Pasadena, California. His father, William Blaine Richardson, Jr. (died in 1972), who was of half Anglo-American and half Mexican descent, was an American Citibank executive who grew up in Boston, Massachusetts and lived and worked in Mexico City. His mother, María Luisa López-Collada Márquez, is the Mexican daughter of a Spanish father from Villaviciosa, Asturias, Spain and a Mexican mother and was his father's secretary. Richardson's father was born in Nicaragua. Just before Richardson was born, his father sent his mother to California to give birth because, as Richardson explained, "My father had a complex about not having been born in the United States." Richardson, a U.S. citizen by birthright, was raised during his childhood in Mexico City. He was raised Roman Catholic. When Richardson was 13, his parents sent him to Massachusetts to attend a preparatory school, Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, where he played baseball as a pitcher. He entered Tufts University in 1966 where he continued to play baseball.
Richardson's original biographies stated he had been drafted by the Kansas City Athletics and the Chicago Cubs to play professional baseball, but a 2005 Albuquerque Journal investigation revealed that he never was on any official draft. Richardson acknowledged the error which he claimed was unintentional, saying that he had been scouted by several teams and told that he "would or could" be drafted, but was mistaken in saying that he was actually drafted.
In 1967, he pitched in the amateur Cape Cod Baseball League for the Cotuit Kettleers in Cotuit, Massachusetts. A Kettleers program included the words "Drafted by K.C." The information which, according to the investigation, was generally provided by the players or their college coaches. Richardson said:
“ | When I saw that program in 1967, I was convinced I was drafted...And it stayed with me all these years. | ” |
He earned a Bachelor's degree at Tufts University in 1970, majoring in French and political science and became a president and brother of Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He went on to earn a master's degree in international affairs from Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1971. While still in high school, he met his future wife, Barbara Flavin.
Read more about this topic: Bill Richardson
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or education:
“next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawns early my
country tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jing by gee by gosh by gum”
—E.E. (Edward Estlin)
“The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid of value if it does not offer the hardness, the rigidity, the regularity, the luster on every interior and exterior facet, of the crystal.”
—André Breton (18961966)
“Very likely education does not make very much difference.”
—Gertrude Stein (18741946)