He was called AR or Atherton Richards; however his full name was Joseph Atherton Richards. Richards was born in the Islands on September 29, 1894 (he died in 1974.) His father, Theodore Richards, came to Hawaiʻi in 1888 to become teacher of the first class to graduate at the Kamehameha Schools and, in 1894, principal of the Kamehameha Schools for five years.

Theodore Richards founded Kokokahi on the windward side of Oʻahu (now a YWCA facility,) a place for people of different races to live together as people of one blood. During WWII, Atherton Richards was one of the top officials serving in the “Economics Branch” discussing “the possibilities of economic warfare organization.” A lasting legacy of Richards is Kahua Ranch in Kohala, Hawai‘i Island.