The inspiring story behind how this San Juan High School alumnus found his career

By Larry Fritz–
Richard Deatherage, class of ’81, was an Air Force brat and a die-hard entrepreneur. His family took root in Citrus Heights in 1976 after his father retired. Richard had several small revenue producing ventures at the time, so San Juan High School was not one of his favorite subjects.

One day, San Juan Principal Charlie Berger caught Richard cutting one of his least favorite classes as he had done so many times before. It was Mr. James Theoboldt’s drafting class. Charlie gave Richard detention.

Mr. Theoboldt was aware of Richard’s situation and wanted to engage him. He knew that Richard was bored with remedial drafting exercises. So he offered Richard the chance to draft and design a real custom home plan during his time in detention. Richard jumped at the offer.

Drafting a complete set of plans for someone at Richard’s age is not easy. So Mr. Theoboldt spent some time to mentor Richard on the project. Richard recalls many occasions where the two of them would jump into Mr. Theoboldt’s pick-up truck and drive to a local construction site.

Mr. Theoboldt took Richard to construction sites at various stages of completion to help him visualize what he was attempting to draw. Richard completed the set of plans during his time in detention and they were accepted by the Sacramento County Planning Department. Richard had designed and drafted his first custom home at the age of 16. He loved it. There was no turning back.

For the remainder of his time at San Juan, Richard enrolled in the ROP program and interned with a local architect, Robert Schaffer & Associates. He spent half of his time in class and the other half drafting plans.

After graduating, Richard enrolled at Sierra College to become an architect. But he soon found a repeat of his San Juan experience. His classes were boring and most of what they were teaching he had already learned.

So Richard dropped out of college and went to work as a finish carpenter for John Mourier Construction. Richard enjoyed the hands-on experience, but did not lose his focus. With determination and finished sets of plans as work samples, he parlayed himself into an architectural drafting position in less than two years.

At the age of 20, Richard became the youngest Project Coordinator/Architectural Draftsman in the State of California. In the next five years, Richard was involved in drafting about 2,000 homes in 12 residential developments.

Then, in 1987, he started his own drafting service for developers throughout Northern California. Richard started drafting just before the computer age, drawing plans with a mechanical lead pencil on vellum paper. He liked doing it that way.

When computer aided drafting (CAD) systems came into being, he did not have any inkling to embrace them. In 2009, Richard drew his last set of plans, unable to compete with CAD systems.

Richard then reinvented himself. Starting from scratch, he strapped on his old tool belt and went back to work as a finish carpenter. But with his knowledge and experience, quickly worked his way up to construction superintendent. Today, Richard supervises the construction of large commercial buildings up and down the west coast.

Back to Mr. Theoboldt: Did he ever find out about Richard’s success? Oh yes.

For the first few years of his career, Richard made regular trips back to San Juan with his latest set of plans in hand, excited to show them to Mr. Theoboldt, who in turn would proudly show the plans to his students, then hang them up on the classroom wall for all to see.

On one of these San Juan trips to drop off his latest creation, Richard was looking for Mr. Theoboldt’s mailbox when a counselor noticed him. The counselor pulled Richard aside and informed him that Mr. Theoboldt had recently passed away.

At this point in my interview with Richard, we had to stop. He was momentarily unable to speak. To this day, Richard grieves for the loss of his mentor and friend, who so greatly helped to shape his life.

Richard has many more interesting stories. In 2008, his father encouraged him to write an autobiography. He did. And he titled it after his penchant for mechanical pencils. The “The Last of the Lead Holders” is available on Amazon.

This article was originally published in the April 2022 edition of the San Juan Alumni Association newsletter and has been re-printed with permission of the author, Larry Fritz. More information about the association can be found at www.sanjuanalumniassociation.org