Richard J. Riordan (born May 1, 1930) is a Republican politician from California, U.S.A. who served as the California Secretary of Education from 2003–2005 and as Mayor of Los Angeles from 1993–2001. Riordan ran for Governor of California unsuccessfully in 2002.
Riordan, an Irish-American, was born in Flushing, New York and attended Princeton University, earning a degree in philosophy. He then served in the Korean War, and earned his Juris Doctor...
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Richard J. Riordan (born May 1, 1930) is a Republican politician from California, U.S.A. who served as the California Secretary of Education from 2003–2005 and as Mayor of Los Angeles from 1993–2001. Riordan ran for Governor of California unsuccessfully in 2002.
Riordan, an Irish-American, was born in Flushing, New York and attended Princeton University, earning a degree in philosophy. He then served in the Korean War, and earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1956. Shortly thereafter he received an inheritance from his father. He invested the money in four firms — Control Data Corporation, Litton Industries, Haloid (predecessor of Xerox), and Syntex — and within a few years had converted an $80,000 investment into almost $500,000.
He moved to Los Angeles to begin work as an attorney for the downtown law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, but spent the next several years at a number of law firms including Nossaman LLP all the while honing his skills as a...
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