Richard Fielding Ashmore was born on Dec. 16, 1958. He was named for the novelist Henry Fielding, who was the subject of the doctoral thesis of Richard’s father, Charles Ashmore, which was completed the year Richard was born. He grew up with his three brothers and his sister in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where his father served as the Dean of Converse College and his dear mother took care of the family. He attended Spartanburg High School, and while he was there, he distinguished himself scholastically. He was one of the first to attend the Governor’s School for the academically gifted and talented, and he was a National Merit Scholar. He later attended the College of Charleston, and graduated in 1983 from the Medical University of South Carolina with a degree in pharmacology. He was an active and devoted member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity during his years in Charleston. In 1983 he decided to take a job in the pharmacy of a hospital on St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and found an immense fondness for the people and the pace there. He had been to St. Thomas in 1971, when the family had stopped there on a Caribbean cruise, and he always remembered his initial enchantment with the place. The ways of St. Thomas were new to Richard, but he was taught much by Fernella Dorbeck, who remains a friend and is now an employee at Tradewinds Pharmacy. Richard loved the beauty of the islands and always wanted to share it with friends and family. In 1991, he bought a house in Frenchman’s Bay where he lived the remainder of his life.
