J. Richard Chase grew up on a dairy farm in Oxnard, California and attended the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (later Biola University).
[4] After serving as president of Biola for twelve years, Chase was appointed as president of Wheaton College in 1982 where he served in this role for eleven years, seeking to attract students from around the world and maintain the university's academic standards and biblical values.
[7][8] Chase's tenure at Wheaton was notable for his fundraising successes[1] but also for a censorship controversy in 1990 where several students were suspended or expelled for publishing an off-color underground newspaper.
[9][10][11] After leaving Wheaton's presidency, Chase taught courses at Tyndale Seminary in the Netherlands from 1993 to 2003.
[1] Chase died on August 20, 2010, in Carol Stream, Illinois, after a long battle with dementia and pneumonia.