He was a student of, and mentored by, Joseph Strayer, the noted Princeton scholar.
Kaeuper earned his PhD from Princeton in 1967, and thereafter held several posts, finishing in his present position as professor of medieval history at the University of Rochester.
Professor Kaeuper is regarded as an influential scholar in the field, known both for his thorough work and for his use of literary sources as historical evidence.
[1] He has published extensively on topics ranging from law and finance to his more recent works on chivalry, culminating in the definitive general volume on chivalry, published by Cambridge University Press.
[4] In 2017, Brill published a festschrift entitled Prowess, Piety, and Public Order in Medieval Society: Essays in Honor of Richard W. Kaeuper.