Thomas Rickard

Thomas Rickard (1866–1911) was a mining engineer,[1] an early resident of Berkeley, California, and served as the last President of the Town Board of Trustees from 1903 to 1909,[2] before the new city charter went into effect, creating the office of Mayor.

Rickard was born in France on August 28, 1866 to Reuben Rickard and Mary E Humphreys.[2] Both of his parents were English-born.[3] He immigrated to the United States with his family in the 1875.[2] In 1889 he married his wife Alice Whitmore.[2] They had four children: Leontine (b. May 1889), Helen (b. June 1891), Donald (b. August 1894), and Thomas, Jr. (b. January 1899).[2][3]

Rickard had a cousin whose name was also Thomas,[1] but regularly used his middle initial "A" (for Arthur). Thomas A. Rickard was a prominent writer on the subject of mining,[4] who, in 1896, was appointed by the Governor to the position of State Geologist of Colorado. He served in that position until 1901.[5]

Rickard graduated from the University of California in 1887,[1] with a degree in mining engineering.[2] From 1901 until his death, he served as vice president of the San Francisco mining firm of Harron, Rickard and McCone.[2] He also served as a trustee of the California Institute for the Deaf and Blind,[2] located in Berkeley.

Rickard's father Reuben Rickard[1] also served as President of the Town Board of Trustees in Berkeley from 1891 to 1893 and again for about a month in 1895.[6] He was also a mining engineer, having worked throughout the western United States.[2] Thomas' brother Edgar Rickard[1] was the editor of a mining newspaper in London and a close acquaintance of Herbert Hoover.[7]

Thomas Rickard died on March 25, 1911.[1][8] His wife died September 10, 1945 in San Joaquin County. Although she had remarried, she and Thomas are memorialised together at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.[9]