John T. Rickard

Rickard lived in and attended school in Santa Barbara until the 1925 earthquake destroyed the family home on Victoria Street.

In 1943, while serving in the Navy, Rickard married Marion Esther Foster of Des Moines, Iowa in Miami, Florida.

Rickard and Marion had five sons: James Bickle (1946), Robert Webb (1947), John Treloar Jr. (1948), Thomas Orena (1950), and Dennis Foster (1953-2015).

Rickard was instrumental in revitalizing a local festival called "Old Spanish Days Fiesta", which had been placed on hold due to World War II and the subsequent droughts in Southern California.

Rickard felt the sanctuary was needed to "protect beautiful beach recreational and residential areas from desecration by oil well development...".

During this time he worked intimately with the likes of city matriarch Pearl Chase and former Santa Barbara News-Press owner T.M.

He believed that essential to that vision was a full service commercial airport capable of handling the new generation of large jet planes.

In 1968, after spending the majority of his professional career as a lawyer, he was appointed a Superior Court Judge by the Governor of California, Ronald Reagan.