Obituary of Roland Prettyman Richards

Roland Prettyman Richards died in Darien on March 14, 2007. He was a native of Darien born in 1910, the son of the late Marshall P. Richards and Lillian Grieves Richards. Mr. Richards was a descendent of the Prettyman and Richards families, early colonial settlers in Delaware. He attended Darien Schools and graduated from Stamford High School with the last class of Darien students to go to Stamford prior to the availability of a local high school. He attended Boston University and in 1931 graduated from the College of Business Administration, now known as the School of Management. Early on, he worked in the mines of the Island Creek Coal Company in West Virginia. Subsequently, he joined the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and later the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company. In December 1940 he received an appointment as Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”). After training at Quantico, VA and Washington, DC, he was assigned to duty in the Seattle office. In the summer of 1941, he came home and married Beatrice Elizabeth Stonington. Following the church wedding and reception at the bride’s home in Darien, he left immediately for Seattle, followed in ten days by his bride. Two months after his arrival in Seattle, he was transferred to the San Francisco office. He was immediately involved in National Security activities in several counties in California. Shortly after the United States entered WWII he was the first agent to capture a Nazi spy in the United States. In the fall of 1943, he was assigned to the Counter-Espionage Squad involving the Manhattan Project and continued this duty until spring 1945 when he was transferred to duty with the Secretary of State for the duration of the Organization Meeting of the United Nations at San Francisco. Sometime thereafter, following duty in the FBI office in New York City, he opted to return to insurance and family commitments. Later, he was appointed Eastern Regional Manager of the Zurich Insurance Company which was followed by affiliation with the INA Reinsurance Company from which he retired in 1975. He spent the next ten years consulting in the field of reinsurance. In the decades after World War II while living in Darien and raising his family, Roland helped to build the town. He constructed a number of houses along Old King’s Highway North and Raymond Street on land owned by his family. He built Deerfield Road and deeded it to Darien, and approved the houses that were built along it. He further contributed to the town by providing oral histories of events occurring during his 96 years here. Roland was a former member of the Noroton Yacht Club, the Tokeneke Club, the RTM (Representative Town Meeting of Darien), and the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI. Roland is survived by his wife, Beatrice; two sons, Eric and his wife Cheryle of New Canaan, and Gregory of New York City; and two granddaughters, Caroline Richards of San Francisco, CA and Cynthia Richards of Los Angeles, CA. A memorial service will be held at the First Congregational Church, 14 Brookside Road, Darien on Saturday, April 21, 2007 at 2:00 PM. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to Post 53 Ambulance Service, P. O. Box 2066, Darien, CT 06820. Funeral Home: Edward Lawrence Funeral Home 2119 Post Road Darien, CT USA 06820