Short Personal Bio: John Richards

John was born in 1937 at the home of his parents in Council Grove, Morris County, in the middle of the Eastern half of Kansas where the Flint Hills meet the prairie. In 1940 John moved with his parents and older brother to the family farm of 440 acres 15 miles northwest of Council Grove, the county seat of 2500 (half the population of Morris County). John and his brother 2.5 years older attended a 1-room country school carved from one corner of their father's half section of land. Walking home the quarter mile from school, John frequently dialogued with his imaginary friends while collecting fossils from the creek bed and arrowheads from the fields. In the summer of 1942 observing and questioning every experience, John determined he would not become a farmer like his father. Always quiet and different from other children in conduct, manner and interests, John was nicknamed "the runt" and considered "stupid" by everyone- he was required to repeat the 4th grade resulting in 9 years in a very boring 1-room rural school.