Henry Leopold Richter was born in Plumenau, a province of Moravia in the Austrian Empire.  He was the son of Heinrich Christian Richter (born in 1818 Neiden, Saxony) and Frances Kalibys.  H. C. Richter was one of the top brewers in Germany.  In 1883 the family moved to Vienna, where young Henry attended high school.  In early years he was given a violin and lessons, and enjoyed music throughout his life.  Henry did well in school and was awarded a scholarship (in art and mathematics) but was not able to take advantage of it as the family moved away.  He had several apprentice jobs, and moved around the area becoming fluent in six languages, but English was not one of these languages.

 In 1887 the family emigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago. The senior Mr. Richter passed
away a couple of years later and Henry had to support the family. He went to night school to learn English and he became a US citizen in 1894.  He took a series of labor type jobs, and in the process learned art to make paintings from photographs.

Henry attended an Art Academy, which became the Chicago Art Institute. His painting went well, and in 1904 he opened a studio and exhibited his work widely. He was offered a teaching position in the Normal School of Colorado at Gunnison, soon to become Western State College. When arriving, the College was short of funds and staff, so Henry taught art, German and the violin.  He served as first violin in the College orchestra.  Henry painted several large murals for his classroom.

Henry took a leave of absence in 1913-14 for more study in Europe.  He cut his time short, returning to the US in 1914, and the day he arrived in New York, war was declared.  He returned to his Gunnison teaching
position, and quickly had several exhibitions of the new works he had painted in Europe.

In 1915 he married Catherine Moore Richter who was from Grand Junction, Colorado.  After they were married, they lived in the old La Veta Hotel in Gunnison.  After a year of very little for Catherine to do, and Henry with little time to paint, she asked to take over his teaching responsibility, giving her husband the time to paint.  He took extensive sketching trips around Gunnison area, and was known particularly for his paintings of snow scenes.

In 1919 the Richters took teaching positions at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.  Henry worked in the college of Fine Arts and Catherine taught in the College of Education. After a short time, the lure of the West called them and they moved to Long Beach, CA, in 1920.  Catherine had a teaching position at Polytechnic High School and Henry took a number of private pupils, painted, and taught art in night school at Poly High.  Incidentally he was ill one evening, and canceled his class on the evening of the 1933 earthquake.  His classroom was demolished, fortunately empty of teacher and pupils.

The family which now included Henry Jr. went to Europe in 1930 for a sketching trip which resulted in
many fine paintings. It was cut short to avoid the growing Spanish revolution. The family was soon joined
by daughter Elsa, and moved in 1939 to the country type setting in Rolling Hills, in the southwest portion
of the Los Angeles Basin. There Henry Sr. had a number of private pupils, painted, and exhibited
extensively throughout Southern California, including Laguna Beach. He was well known for his desert scene paintings.  Henry L. Richter, Sr., passed away in 1960, just short of 90 years of age.