Elliot Lee Richardson was born July 20, 1920, in Boston, Massachusetts. He earned an A.B. cum laude (1941) and LL.B. cum laude (1947) from Harvard University. Richardson was both an associate and partner in the Boston law firm of Ropes and Gray. He was lieutenant governor of Massachusetts from 1965 to 1967 and Massachusetts attorney general from 1967 to 1969.

President Richard Nixon appointed him secretary of health, education, and welfare in 1970. Richardson also served the Nixon administration as secretary of defense (January-May 1973), U.S. attorney general (May-October 1973). In the administration of Gerald Ford, Richardson was ambassador to Great Britain in 1975 and secretary of commerce from 1976 to 1977. Following government service, Richardson worked as a partner with the law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy. He died in 1999.