Richard W. Abbe
The Judge Richard Abbe Scholarship is named for a man who was once a familiar presence among Shasta County runners.
Justice Abbe served as Shasta County District Attorney from 1962 to 1965 prior to his appointment to the Shasta County
Superior Court in January 1965.
An accomplished tennis player and skier, in the 1960s he added two new passions to his regimen: bicycling and running. He
continued playing sports until his sudden death in September 2000 at the age of 74 of a stroke. An avid reader, his pursuit of
physical fitness was only matched by a love of books and a concern for the social condition. The Santa Barbara Bar
Association recently named their annual humanitarian award in Justice Abbe¹s honor, noting that his life "exemplified
humanitarian principles."
For many years, early morning golfers and groundskeepers at Riverview Country Club could see the Judge sprinting across
the well-manicured lawns along the Sacramento River. An avid birdwatcher, he delighted in the wildlife he encountered in
those early hours, and when he returned each morning from his 5 to 10 mile run, dripping with sweat, he regaled his family
with sightings of red foxes, or river otters. Within the hour, he would be on his bicycle for the morning commute across
Cypress Street Bridge to his chambers in the Shasta County Court House.
Born in 1926 in Paris, France, he and his brother and sister, John and Patience Abbe returned to the States in 1936 as child
celebrities. They were the youthful authors of a runaway best seller, "Around the World in Eleven Years." A recent history of
the era reads, "The press was full of reports of their exploding fame. The book was well reviewed everywhere--even the
crotchety Alexander Woollcott called it ŒEnchanting.¹" One news account reported, "In spite of the whirlwind of excitement
about their book, the youngsters are not the least carried away with any idea of their own importance."
The family soon moved to Colorado where, at age 14, Abbe struck out on his first solo bicycle trip, traveling on balloon tires
from south of Denver to just outside Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he found work on a sheep ranch for the summer.
Running, as a pastime, came easily to Abbe, whose childhood was spent moving from one country and one house to another.
His father, James E. Abbe, was a top photographer of the era, and a seasoned traveler.
While serving in the Navy during World War II he was once made to run extra laps around a track for complaining of
stomach pains. That night he was rushed to a base hospital with an enormously enlarged appendix. Despite that early trauma,
he was an eager and avid runner, and marathoner.
He graduated from Stanford University, received his law degree from Hastings College of the Law, and married Pauline
Kirkpatrick. His legal career began in Hollister, California but Pauline¹s love of skiing and snow-capped mountains soon led
the couple and their four daughters to Shasta County in 1959.
In 1982, after 23 years in Redding, Abbe was elevated to the Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division 6 in
Ventura. Justice Abbe officially retired from the bench in 1990, but continued mediating and arbitrating disputes, as well as
serving as a visiting judge in Superior Court.
He delighted in outfitting family members with running shoes, tennis racquets, bicycles and skis in his ongoing effort to convert
others to his passion for fitness. He would be very pleased that his memory is being evoked to inspire both academic and
physical achievements in a new generation of athletes.
-Jenny Abbe Moyer