At Yale he studied English and Greek, graduating in 1917 as a member of the senior society Scroll and Key.

When he returned to the United States, Richards attended Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, graduating with an M.A.

He was on the staff of the Presbyterian Hospital in New York until 1927, when he went to England to work at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, under Sir Henry Dale, on the control of circulation in the liver.

In 1928, Richards returned to the Presbyterian Hospital and began his research on pulmonary and circulatory physiology, working under Professor Lawrence Henderson of Harvard.

[1][2] As a result, for the first time in human history, a World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.