He also headed the brokerage firm Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co., whose specialty is trading leveraged stocks and shortselling.
His father, Richard Sr., worked as a property manager for a real estate company; his mother, Jane (Moyse), was a housewife.
[2] Gilder attended Northfield Mount Hermon School before enrolling in Yale College, graduating in 1954 with a BA in history.
[9] In 2005, Gilder and Lewis Lehrman received the National Humanities Medal for their work promoting the study of American history.
[10] He then set up a PhD program at the American Museum of Natural History in his own name, the Richard Gilder Graduate School at AMNH.
[2][12] One of his daughters, Virginia Gilder (born 1958), also a Yale graduate,[3] was a member of the American women's quadruple sculls team that won the silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics.