Finley Peter Dunne once wrote of my brother that he "probably knew more waiters, generals, actors, and princes than any man who lived," and I think it was during the first year of his life at Bethlehem that he began the foundation for the remarkable collection of friends, both as to numbers and variety, of which he died possessed.
Although a "prep," he made many friends among the undergraduates of Lehigh.

He made friends with the friends of his uncle and many friends in both of the Bethlehems of which his uncle had probably never heard.
Even at that early age he counted among his intimates William W.
Thurston, who was president of the Bethlehem Iron Company, and J.Davis Brodhead, one of Pennsylvania's most conspicuous Democratic congressmen and attorneys.

Those who knew him at that time can easily understand why Richard attracted men and women so much older than himself.

He was brimming over with physical health and animal spirits and took the keenest interest in every one he met and in everything that was going on about him.

And in the broadest sense he saw to it then, as he did throughout his life, that he always did his share.
During those early days at Bethlehem his letters to his family were full of his social activities, with occasional references to his work at school.