Steeplejacking is the art of scaling buildings and other edificies to do jobs that are too high for ordinary carpenters and painters. In the earlier part of the 20th century, it was a door to door free enterprise that anyone with a few supplies and some gull could do.

To understand how simultaneously unfitting and apt this job was for Bob Richards to do in 1952, you have to understand his life and journey up to this point of his life in his twenties. Bob's life could easily span several hour long radio shows with surprising twists and turns, especially coming from well dressed, clean-cut, average looking 77 year old British man who was born in South Africa. At the time he started steeple jacking, he had a degree in Physical from George Washington University and had been offered to start in a PhD program there. He had also already snuck into the United States off a ship he worked on in Africa, been in jail and had hitchhiked across the United States. After hitchhiking across the US, he got a job in California at a chemical plant. After only 7 months, the job was finished, he was paid nicely and that’s where our story starts in Los Angeles….

Steeplejacking is the art of scaling buildings and other edificies to do jobs that are too high for ordinary carpenters and painters. In the earlier part of the 20th century, it was a door to door free enterprise that anyone with a few supplies and some gull could do.

To understand how simultaneously unfitting and apt this job was for Bob Richards to do in 1952, you have to understand his life and journey up to this point of his life in his twenties. Bob's life could easily span several hour long radio shows with surprising twists and turns, especially coming from well dressed, clean-cut, average looking 77 year old British man who was born in South Africa. At the time he started steeple jacking, he had a degree in Physical from George Washington University and had been offered to start in a PhD program there. He had also already snuck into the United States off a ship he worked on in Africa, been in jail and had hitchhiked across the United States. After hitchhiking across the US, he got a job in California at a chemical plant. After only 7 months, the job was finished, he was paid nicely and that’s where our story starts in Los Angeles….