Richard Schwartz grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In
1968 at Central High School he won varsity football's "Team
Award" and was the undefeated Pennsylvania State Fencing
Champion in the weapon Epee in the 1969 competition. Schwartz
graduated from Temple University in 1973 with a bachelor's
degree in English literature. For two years while at Temple he
worked on a Pennsylvania Dutch farm eleven hours a day, three
days a week.
He came to Berkeley in 1973 and formed the New World Trio, an
acoustical jazz trio with Eric Vaughan (Godson of Sarah
Vaughan) on piano, Samadhi Aheshma (played with Miles Davis at
sixteen years old) on bass, and himself on drums. He also
played in Abukir, a Berkeley Latin jazz sextet, and taught
drums in a Berkeley after-school program.
In 1976 Schwartz joined the U.S. Forest Service to fight fires
in the Sierra. It was during this time that he came across an
ancient sixty-five-foot stone circle near Truckee. His
curiosity about this configuration led to his first book, "The
Circle of Stones," a nonfiction archeological mystery.
In 1982 Schwartz earned his General Building Contractors
license from the State of California, where he was also
certified to condemn and examine buildings for the State after
an earthquake. He continued through January 2021 to be active
in the construction trades and specialized in design, lighting
design exterior, lighting design interior, earthquake
retrofitting, drainage/water issues, and leak diagnosis work.
In the early 1990s he joined a Brazilian samba school and
played in the San Francisco and Oakland Carnivals. In 1992 he
traveled to Brazil and studied Afro-Brazilian drumming with
Carlinios Brown. He co-led Orixa Ba Ba of San Francisco on
billings that included Ray Charles and Tower of Power. The
group also performed on San Francisco's KQED television.
In 1996 Schwartz was at the Berkeley Historical Society when a
stack of Berkeley newspapers circa 1900 was about to be
discarded by the Society. He rescued the newspapers by taking
them home. These rescued "Berkeley Gazettes" became the basis
for the book "Berkeley 1900." Richard Schwartz put four years
into the research, writing, and production of "Berkeley 1900"
and published it himself. "Berkeley 1900" was on the "East Bay
Best Sellers List" in the "East Bay Express" for ten months. The
book was chosen by the "San Francisco Chronicle" as one of ten
"Holiday Gift Books of the Year" in 2000.
Schwartz released "Earthquake Exodus, 1906" in November, 2005.
It is the only book to focus on the refugees and relief effort
instead of the disaster. Mayor Tom Bates of Berkeley has already
utilized the research in the book to comment in the "San
Francisco Chronicle" on the response to Katrina. Schwartz
presented a Certificate of Honor from then-San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom to the citizens of Berkeley for their role in
saving the lives of tens of thousands of refugees from the San
Francisco 1906 Earthquake. The book was featured on many local
TV and radio stations and received recognition in Europe.
In July of 2007, Schwartz released the book, "Eccentrics,
Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley" which documents the
lives of seventeen men and women who were famous in their day
(1850-1925), but have been all but forgotten in our modern
world. It was these colorful pioneers that gave Berkeley its
original character. Their stories will be well utilized by our
current citizens. The reviews and citizen feedback and
appreciation of this latest work have been gratifying to
Schwartz. "Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley"
was picked as a 2007-2008 "Holiday Gift Book of the Year" by
the "San Francisco Chronicle," and "Alameda Magazine" and the
staffs at Pegasus Books and Cody's Books also singled out the
book as one of their favorites for the holidays.
In September of 2009, the 10th Anniversary Edition of
"Berkeley 1900, Daily Life at the Turn of the Century" was
released. It contains 150 new photos, many of which were never
seen publicly before. They represented ten additional years of
pioneer descendants contacting Schwartz with their family
albums and years of searching for new photos by Schwartz. The
reception this beloved book received, which had been sold out
and out of print since 2003, has been most vigorous by the
press and public.
Schwartz has spoken to and/or written articles for or been
reviewed or interviewed by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences, American History Magazine , The American Library
Association, Booklist and Booklist Online, The Commonwealth
Club of San Francisco, The Conference of California Historical
Societies, The California Historical Society, The California
Culture Resource Alliance Inc., The California Native
Plant Society, The California State Library, The Construction
Specification Institute, The Society of California Archivists,
The California Preservation Society, The Jewish Book Council,
The Independent Publishers Book Awards, The Midwest Review of
Books, The National Charity League, The Oakland Museum of
California and its History Guild, The United States Geological
Survey, The East Bay Regional Parks, The East Bay Media
Center, San Francisco State University, De Anza College, The
1906 Great Earthquake and Fire Exposition, The 1906 Centennial
Symposium, The Bay Area Earthquake Alliance, The 1868 Hayward
Earthquake Alliance, The Berkeley Shellmound Conference, Bay
Area Litquake, The Midwest Review of Books, The National
Charity League, Native Berkeley Ancient Wisdom for Troubled
Times conference, San Francisco Statue University Labor Fest,
San Francisco History Days at the Old Mint, The Alameda County
Historical Society, The Alameda Museum, The Albany Historical
Society, The City of Walnut Creek, The Contra Costa County
Historical Society, The Cub Scouts of America, The Alameda
History Museum, The Albany Historical Society, The Berkeley
Architectural Heritage Association, The Berkeley Path
Wanderers, The Berkeley City Commons Club, The Berkeley
Historical Society and its newsletter, Byron Park, Walnut
Creek, CA, The El Cerrito Historical Society, The El Cerrito
Trail Trekkers Hillside Festival, The Emperor's Bridge
Campaign, History Expo by the Hercules Historical Society, The
Hillside Club, The Lafayette Historical Society, The Martinez
Historical Society, The Moraga Historical Society, Native Here
Nursery, The Oakland Heritage Alliance, Richmond Museum of
History, Pt. Richmond Writers Group, The San Leandro
Historical Society, The Sonoma Valley Historical Society, The
Southern Jewish Historical Society, The Thousand Oaks
Neighborhood Association, The Truckee Historical Society, The
Gov. Pardee Home Museum, The Westerners, The Bay Area Rock Art
Research Association, Publishers Weekly's Book
Life, This Week in America radio show, The
History Author Show, WMST, Mount Sterling, KY, Mornings
on Main with Dan Manly, Helping History Happen radio
show, KXJZ Capital Public Radio Sacramento, West Coast
Live with Sedge Thompson, Mathew and Friends Radio Show,
ImpactRadio.com, The William Penn House,
Philadelphia, The San Francisco Chronicle, SFGATE.com,
Berkeleyside, The Berkeley Daily Planet, The
Berkeley Voice, Bay Area News Group, The California Monthly
the Alumni Magazine of UC Berkeley, The Chestnut Hill
Local, Philadelphia, The Custer County
Chronicle, Custer, South Dakota, The Daily
Californian, The East Bay Express, The East Bay Times, Local
News Matters, The Forward, The Jewish Book
Council, The Jewish News of Northern
California, JWeekly, Jewish News of
Detroit, The Jewish Ledger, Jlife of Orange
County, Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism, Splice Today,
Jamie Jobbs Backstage Pass, The Jewish Exponent of
Philadelphia, The Jewish Ledger, Rochester,
NY, The Kanzhongguo Association Newspaper, The Berkeley
Monthly, The Martinez Gazette, The Niles Essanay Silent
Film Museum, The Oakland Tribune, Oakland
Magazine, The Rambler of the Southern Jewish
Historical Society, SilentHollywood.com, San Francisco Main
Library and two branch libraries, TheaterJones.com, The Contra
Costa Times, WGUB PBS NPR affiliate Western Michigan, KCBS,
KQED, KPFA, KALX, KMPT, ABC Channel 7, KTVU Channel 2, KRON
Channel 4, KPIX Channel 5, KTSF Channel 26, WTBF Radio, The
Albany Public Library, The Berkeley Public Library Main Branch
and North Berkeley, The Berkeley Public Library Foundation,
The California State Library, The Oakland Public Library, The
San Francisco Public Libraries, The Kensington Public Library,
The El Cerrito Public Library, Free Libraries of Philadelphia,
Andorra and City Institute branches, The Sacramento Public
Library, Publishers Weekly, The Jewish Community
Library, San Francisco, The Watershed Environmental Poetry
Festival, The Hotel Shattuck Plaza, The Audubon Society,
Afiikomen, Berkeley, Barnes and Noble in Oakland and Berkeley,
CA and Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, Book Passage Corte
Madera and San Francisco, Britt-Marie's, Builders Booksource,
Berkeley Laurel Books, Oakland, Orinda Books, Pegasus Books,
Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore, Shakespeare Books, Philadelphia,
Railroad Book Depot, Pittsburg, CA, Associated Alumni of
Central High School, Philadelphia, Kiwanis Club, Rotary
Club, See's the Day Camp, Peninsula Jewish Community Center,
Northbrae Community Church, churches, synagogues, schools,
senior centers, book clubs, book clubs, bookstores and other
institutions on Native American and American historical
topics.
In 2017, Richard released "The Man Who Lit Lady Liberty, The
Extraordinary Rise and Fall of Actor M. B. Curtis." The book
has been accepted in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences Margret Herrick Collection. It is on sale at the
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island National Parks. Richard has
given scores of interviews and talks on this forgotten
American cultural hero. The book won the Bronze Medal for
Biography from the 2018 Independent Publishers Book Awards.
As of 2022, Schwartz has spoken at hundreds of events and
continues to promote history. He also has recorded over 800
previously unknown local Indian sites, of which he sends
reports to the State archive at Sonoma State University.
(C.H.R.I.S.) In 2014 he was hired by the archeological
consulting firm that was studying the West Berkeley Shellmound
to share his knowledge of many unstudied archeological sites
in the area. In 2021, Richard was hired by the archeological
firm working for the City of Richmond and Cal Trans
to consult and present the results of his pedestrian
survey of Native American sites in the area of the I-80
Central Avenue Interchange Improvement Project, Phase
2. In May of 2022, Richard was named an Affiliated
Research Scholar of the U.C. Berkeley Joseph A. Myers
Center for Research on Native American Issues. He will
be co-teaching a research project there using sites Richard
found to teach the students how to fill out the state forms of
C. H. R. I. S. If you ever found or know of Native American
sites or artifact finds, please email him so they can be added
to the archeological record. His email button is at the top of
the page.
Schwartz is working on a number of new history projects.
