Richards, Ralph Taylor, 1880-1954.

Ralph Taylor Richards (1880-1954) was the grandson of Willard Richards, a prominent member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Ralph was born to Dr. Joseph S. and Louise Taylor Richards, in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 25 September 1880. He was brought up in a medical family, as his grandfather had completed the Thompson medical course and his father studied at Bellevue Hospital Medical College. Richards was exposed to medical practice and problems early as he often accompanied his father on calls and his mother acted as his father's surgical nurse. By the age of twelve he was assisting his father with the bookkeeping. Before completing high school he had made the decision to follow his father in the profession.

In 1889, at the age of nineteen, Richards began his training at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, in New York City. During summer breaks from school, Richards returned to Salt Lake City to assist his father, including duties such as washing down the operating theatres. Richards completed his program in 1903, and stayed on to begin his practice there. On 14 November 1904, while still at Bellevue, Richards was selected for membership on the staff of the new Latter-day Saints hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. That year Joseph S. Richards joined his son in New York so that two men could select the scientific equipment for the laboratories and operating theatres and arrange shipment to the hospital. Latter-day Saints Hospital opened in 1905, and Richards began his practice there.

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