Don R. Richards was born June 26, 1947 in Stonewall County, Texas, the son of the Elder Afton E. and Mary Richards. He joined the Primitive Baptist Church in 1967 at Munday, Texas and was baptized by his father. In September of 1969, he was ordained to the office of deacon at the Primitive Baptist Church in Rule, Texas. He married the former Melba Herron in August of 1972, in Gaines County, Texas.

Don Richards received a degree in journalism from Texas Tech University in 1972 and served as an editor and then publisher of community newspapers in West Texas and near the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. He and his wife then moved to Washington, D.C. where both served on the staffs of members of the U.S. Congress. In 1984, both graduated from the Texas Tech School of Law. He currently is in private law practice in Lubbock, Texas, where he specializes in utility law and media law.

Don and Melba Richards had two children: a son Reid Hampton born in 1988, and a daughter Raye Marie born in 1991. In the spring of 2000, Melba was diagnosed with a rare form of “thymoma” cancer and “myasthenia gravis”; she died on January 31, 2001, at the age of 53.

In the late summer of 1986, following the death of his father two years earlier, Don assumed the publisher role of The Banner of Love and has operated the church publication since that time. He writes a monthly column for The Banner of Love as well as a continuing series titled “Tour of the Bible” which summarizes significant historical and doctrinal events of the Old Testament.

Don R. Richards currently is a member of the Primitive Baptist Church of Lubbock, Texas, where he serves in the capacity as a gospel minister.