Richards was also a clinical professor of surgery at the University of Utah, chairman of the department of surgery at LDS Hospital, and a member of the board and executive committee of the IHC board of trustees.

[4][5] Richards has served in the LDS Church as a full-time missionary in the Southern Mexican Mission, elders quorum president, scoutmaster, bishop, high councilor, and stake president.

In 1998, he suspended his medical practice and he and his wife moved their family to San Antonio, Texas, to accept a three-year assignment as president of the San Antonio Mission.

[6][7] In 2009, he retired from his medical practice[6] when he was called as a general authority and member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy.

[19] In October 2016, he was released from active service and designated an emeritus general authority.