Richard Jessup

Richard Jessup studied architecture at Princeton University for two years before finishing at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1954. He initially settled in Arizona, but met his future wife, Lyn, and they moved to Mill Valley, California in 1956. There he initially worked with John Carl Warnecke & Associates in San Francisco, before joining the firm of Bushnell, Jessep, Murphy, and Van de Weghe as a named partner. He later established his own architectural firm in San Francisco, joined by his daughter in 1983, and they moved the Jessup Associates Architects offices to their hometown of Mill Valley in 1987. He was noted in Mill Valley for his civic leadership and community service. Jessup was a City Council member, Mayor of Mill Valley, Chairman of the Mill Valley Planning Commission, President of South Marin Sewerage Association, Vice-President of the Marin Theatre Company, and President of the Mill Valley Rotary Club. He received many community service awards, including the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year and Lifetime Service Award, the Millie Award, and Citizen of the Year of the Mill Valley Rotary Club. He was an avid sportsman who participated in many sports, highlighted by his 1948 Olympic appearance.