After George Richards's death, one of his sons, LeGrand, became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS Church, thus making the Richards family only the third Latter-day Saint family in history with three consecutive generations with members in the Quorum (the others being the succession of George A. Smith, John Henry Smith, and George Albert Smith and of Amasa M. Lyman, Francis M. Lyman, and Richard R.

In 1905, two members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles resigned after an argument over LDS Church doctrine and policy.

John W. Taylor disagreed with the 1890 Manifesto forbidding plural marriage; Matthias F. Cowley felt that it should apply only to the territory of the United States.

Richards was appointed to the General Boards of the YMMIA and the Religion Classes shortly after his call to the Twelve.

[8] During his early days in the Twelve, Richards went on several tours of missions in the United States as well as visiting many stake conferences.

In this position he was directly over missionary work in Great Britain as well as having a supervisory role over the mission presidents on the European continent.

In this capacity, he assisted in the changing of the temple ordinances to conform with the church's "Good Neighbor" policy.

Baptisms for health and ordinations of the sick were discontinued in the temple, and endowment sessions starting at night were begun.

Richards accepted, and served in this capacity until 1942, when Grant called Joseph Fielding Smith to be the church's Presiding Patriarch.

Grant, Richards became the second-most senior apostle in the church and thus the President of the Quorum of the Twelve on May 21, 1945, a position which he held until his death.

After Richards's death, Delbert L. Stapley was called in the October general conference of that year to fill the vacancy, and David O. McKay became President of the Quorum.