11th Secretary of Defense of the United States, sworn in by Richard Nixon, January 30, 1973

Education

• 1941: BA, Harvard University
• 1947: Harvard University Law School

Military Career

• 1939-1945: Army, first lieutenant
• involved in the D-Day invasion of Normandy
• recieved two Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star for bravery in combat

Career Track

• 1947-1948: clerk for Judge Learned Hand of the U.S. Court of Appeals
• 1948-1949: clerk for Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter
• 1953-1954: assistant to Sen. Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts
• 1957-1959: assistant secretary in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
• 1959-1961: U.S. attorney for Massachusetts
• 1961: special assistant to the U.S. attorney general
• 1965-1967: lieutenant governor of Massachusetts
• 1967-1969: attorney general of Massachusetts
• 1969-1970: under secretary of state
• 1970-1973: secretary of health, education, and welfare
• 1973: Secretary of Defense

  Richardson left office on May 24, 1973 only months after taking it when president Richard Nixon appointed him to be attorny general (a position also held for a short time. he resigned due to disagreement with Nixon about firing a Watergate investigator).

• 1975-1976: ambassador to Great Britain
• 1974: secretary of commerce
• 1977-1980: appointed by Jimmy Carter as ambassador at large and special representative for the Law of the Sea Conference
• 1980-1992: senior partner in a Washington, DC, law firm
• 1990: led a United Nations delegation to observe presidential elections in Nicaragua