
Friend William Richardson (1 December 1865-6 September 1943) was the Republican Governor of California from 9 January 1923 to 4 January 1927, succeeding William Stephens and preceding C.C. Young.
Biography[]
William Richardson was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1865, and he changed his name to "Friend", a Quaker greeting. He served as county clerk and as a law librarian before moving to San Bernardino, California, where he became editor of the San Bernardino Times Index. Richardson was appointed as Superintendent of the State Printing Office in 1901, moving to Sacramento. A Progressive Party member, he served as State Treasurer from 1915 to 1923, returning to the Republican Party in 1918. In 1922, he ran for Governor on a conservative platform, capitalizing on electoral fatigue with progressivism and returning the California Republican Party to a more conservative bent. He won the support of the Ku Klux Klan, of which he was rumored to be a member, and, as Governor, he repudiated progressivism, saying that the Progressives had done a great job of "house cleaning" in 1911 before establishing another political machine. In 1924, his fiscal conservatism led to a Progressive backlash as the Progressivse took over the state legislature, and the progressive Republicans ensured that Richardson's lieutenant-governor C.C. Young captured the GOP's nomination for Governor in 1926. He then returned to newspaper publishing, and he served as State Building and Loan Commissioner from 1932 to 1934 and as the State Superintendent of Banks from 1934 to 1939 before dying of a heart attack in 1943.