Richard Northern

Richard Northern, the Editor-in-Chief of The Cardinal and named the Outstanding Senior Man in the College of Arts and Sciences in 1970, has remained devoted to the University of Louisville, serving in a number of important roles, including President of the Alumni Association and Treasurer of the UofL Foundation.  A prominent attorney and former White House Fellow, he was Louisville’s Community Leader of the Year in 2006.

As a junior at UofL, Pi Delta Epsilon, the national journalism fraternity, honored Mr. Northern for a story he had written for The Cardinal, citing it as the top news reporting in a college newspaper that year. As a senior in A&S, he was the student member of the Committee charged with overseeing UofL’s entry into the Kentucky system of higher education. Following graduation with a degree in English, he joined The Courier-Journal as a staff writer.  Subsequently, he earned a J.D. degree from the Brandeis School of Law and an M.P.A. degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Mr. Northern served two stints in Washington, first working as Legislative Director for U.S. Representative Romano Mazzoli, and later as a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Cecil Andrus.  Returning to Louisville in 1980, he joined Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, and has practiced corporate law with the firm ever since.

In 1990, he was a member of the first class of honorees to receive Salute Awards from the Catholic Schools of Louisville. In 2006, Mr. Northern was honored as Louisville’s Community Leader of the Year by the Jewish Hospital and St. Mary’s Foundation.  In 2007, Spalding University, in recognition of his civic work, awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.  Previously, he received the Order of Merit Award from the UofL Alumni Association, and was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the Brandeis School of Law.

Among other civic duties, he has chaired the boards of the Catholic Education Foundation, Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital, the Caritas Foundation, the Louisville Redevelopment Authority, the Spalding University Athletics Council and DeSales High School. In the business world, he currently serves as a Director of SYBancorp and Stock Yards Bank & Trust Company.