Full Biography

Richard Allen Beal and his family live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is an 11th-generation American, a retired Silicon Valley businessman, film and TV actor, writer, and a cowboy who loves working with horses and cattle. His Instagram account is richardabeal. Although he has traveled the world, he’s always lived west of the Mississippi river, 75% of that time within 30 minutes drive to the Pacific Ocean.

Wife Kathy is a contemporary visual artist, photographer, Reiki Master, and owns a fashion business called Kathy Beal Signature™ selling her own visual artistry on high-end luxury silk scarves and another clothing design company called Embodywear Fashions. She formerly spent a career in Silicon Valley helping start dozens of technology companies and was also the Chief Financial Officer for Silicon Valley entrepreneur Eric Hahn.

Richard & Kathy have two grown children.  Andrew lives in Layton, Utah with his wife Kolleen Sargent Marchand and her two teenage daughters.  Andrew’s recently married daughter Rebekah Conrad lives and works in Salt Lake City. Kolleen is Assistant Professor, Director of Clinical Education for the Weber State University Physican Assistant program. She also works one day a week seeing patients at the Westwide Tanner Clinic.  Andrew is Director of Wound Care for St Marks Hospital (HCA Healthcare).   He also has trained as a professional diver, with a medical specialty, at the College of Oceaneering in Long Beach, California and is a member of the Davis County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue organization. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Behavioral Science. Andrew is a veteran of the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina, serving in the United States Army as an officer.

Daughter Chandra lives in Arroyo Grande, California where she has a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from Concordia University in Austin, Texas, and a Master’s of Education at Alliant University.  These days she works with Cuyamaca Community College in San Diego as an ESL Instructor.  She’s also a talented writer who wrote and published the popular books Splash Across Texas, The Relaxed Rabbit, a book on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk with Richard, and published a DVD Massage Techniques for Your Companion Rabbit.  She’s a professional massage therapist and a Registered Yoga Teacher.

Younger brother John is an internationally-recognized Hollywood conductor, film and television composer, as well as a motion picture advertising producer. He has conducted for major recording artists ranging from Olivia Newton-John to Deadmau5, movies in concert such as the Harry Potter series, is the principal conductor of the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra, is an award-winning composer of film trailer music, and has composed the music for numerous television series and films.  John lives in Toluca Lake, California with his wife Helene who works at Warner Bros. Entertainment.  John served in the United States Marine Corps and fought in Vietnam as a door gunner on a Huey gunship fighting in more than 200 active combat missions. He received 8 Air Medals for bravery and was awarded a Single Mission Air Medal with Bronze Star by President Richard Nixon for heroism during the rescue of a severely wounded Marine reconnaissance team near Hamburger Hill in the A Shau Valley on April 11, 1969.

Richard is Treasurer of the Santa Fe Horse Coalition, a Certified Horse Professional with the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association, a founding member of the Santa Fe Silver & Saddles Polo Club, former President of Horse Power Protection Projects, member of the American Quarter Horse Association and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. He also is a volunteer with the National Day of the Cowboy organization. Richard has a very successful internet store Beal’s Cowboy Buckles™ which sells western quality authentic cowboy buckles and he writes a blog about the cowboy lifestyle.

He is on the Board of Directors for the Richard and Kathy Beal Family Fund, past President for the University of California Santa Cruz’s Friends of the Seymour Center Long Marine Laboratory, and past President of the Spirit Wind Ranch Homeowners Association.  Richard is a former Board of Director for the New Mexico Film Foundation, and was Executive Producer for the TV pilot Midnight Shanghai.

Richard has been an actor in numerous TV programs, movies, and commercials including the hit series Longmire, Godless, Better Call Saul, and many others.

Free time is spent writing non-fiction books like his best seller Highway 17: The Road to Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk – The Early Years, Never A Dull Moment, training and riding horses, working out daily at the Defined Fitness Gym in Santa Fe, collecting glass and contemporary art, and supporting community organizations. He is a regular volunteer at the Santa Fe Food Depot which provides food to the needy in New Mexico.  Richard also has a HAM Amateur Radio license, call sign KI5DAH, and a home weather station with Weather Underground.

Richard worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena during graduate school and later in the computer industry for 35 years with a variety of Silicon Valley institutions, including Stanford University and Apple Computer, was Vice President at the Internet pioneering company Netscape Communications. Richard was one of the first people to recognize the importance of data in the emerging computer world and was well known for his industry leadership in defining and storing data in ways that helped people understand how to build more useful systems. He was Editor for Codd and Date’s pioneering publication about relational databases “The Relational Journal.” He finished his career providing consulting to startup companies and venture capitalists like Silver Lake Partners and The Barksdale Group.  Richard and Kathy own The Pacific Group, Kathy Beal Signature™, Beal’s Cowboy Buckles™ and Embody Wear Fashions™ businesses for some of their professional activities.

During the mid-1960s Richard served as a Captain in the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command as Deputy Squadron Commander for an elite nuclear warhead Minuteman II ICBM facility and actually successfully launched a test missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. In the 1970s he worked closely with Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers Union as an organizer, was involved in developing support centers for the homeless in Los Angeles and Pasadena, led a famous Christian commune dedicated to community improvement called Footsteps, and was a Manager at the Center for Employment Training in San Jose, California which provides free training and job placement for the disadvantaged.

Richard takes classes at Santa Fe Community College and has a Bachelor of Science degree from UCLA in International Finance, a Master of Science degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri, a Masters of Divinity degree in Theology from San Francisco Theological Seminary and has done post-graduate studies at the University of Cambridge in Great Britain.

Today he studies and tries to practice Buddhism.

What might surprise you about Richard: “I believe in reincarnation and in my next life I’d like to be the Lone Ranger”