Richard Leakey

Richard Leakey
Richard Leakey in 2010
Born	Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (1944-12-19) 19 December 1944 (age 72) Nairobi, British Kenya
Nationality	Kenyan
Fields	Paleoanthropology
Institutions	Stony Brook University
Notable awards	Hubbard Medal (1994)
Spouse	Margaret Cropper (m. 1965; div. 1969) Meave Epps (m. 1970)
Children	3, including Louise Leakey

Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (born 19 December 1944) is a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist, and politician. He is second of the three sons of the archaeologists Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey, and is the younger half-brother of Colin Leakey.

As a small boy, Leakey lived in Nairobi with his parents, Louis Leakey, curator of the Coryndon Museum, and Mary Leakey, director of the Leakey excavations at Olduvai, and his two brothers, Jonathan and Philip. The Leakey brothers had a very active childhood. All the boys had ponies and belonged to the Langata Pony Club. They participated in jumping and steeplechase competitions but often rode for fun across the plains to the Ngong Hills, chasing and playing games with the animals. Sometimes the whole club were guests at the Leakeys for holidays and vacations. Leakey's parents founded the Dalmatian Club of East Africa and won a prize in 1957. Dogs and many other pets shared the Leakey home. The Leakey boys participated in games conducted by both adults and children, in which they tried to imitate early humans, catching springhares and small antelope by hand on the Serengeti. They drove lions and jackals from the kill to see if they could do it.

When Leakey was 11, he fell from his horse, fractured his skull and lay near death. Incidentally, it was this incident that saved his parents' marriage. Louis was seriously considering leaving Mary for his secretary, Rosalie Osborn. As the battle with Mary raged in the household, Leakey begged his father from his sickbed not to leave. That was the deciding factor. Louis broke up with Rosalie and the family lived in happy harmony for a few years more.

The Leakey boys had several nannies like their father before them. At age 11 Leakey entered the Duke of York Secondary School (later known as Lenana School). On his first day Leakey called for racial equality, like his father. Calling him a "lover of niggers", the students locked him in a wire cage, spat and urinated on him and poked him with sticks. The school administration blamed Leakey. After he was caned for missing chapel, Leakey resolved never to be a Christian.