Keep on Walking
LOCAL PHOTOGRAPHER AND POET SEES LIFE THROUGH A NEW LENS
BY LEANE RUTHERFORD MEET YOUR NEIGHBOR
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Richard Turner Photo by Linda Smolek
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IES JUN
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22
fter 43 successful years in the intense, contentious world of law, Richard Turner abruptly pivoted into a soul-soothing sphere of artful photography, global travel and poetry. Following graduation from Stanford, he became a young deputy attorney general in the California Department of Justice, serving as Gov. Ronald Reagan’s personal lawyer. His duties ranged from keeping his boss abreast of current matters to addressing government legalities, and even to quelling riots. Later when Turner announced his decision to move on to private practice, the governor offered him a judgeship in hopes of keeping him. “I declined. I felt I was too young,” Turner says. Everyone predicted his starvation. But Turner, who lives in the Pocket with his wife Prem Hunji, did not starve in private practice. His firm eventually burgeoned to 15 lawyers and 40 employees. As a lawyer and problemsolver, he often took the other side on government issues. He worked on highprofile cases, medical disputes and “the most fun client—the garbage industry.” Raising five children and lawyering left little time for anything else. Then one day at 60, he heard a voice: “A lot is happening in the world, and you are missing it.” That was a clarion call to action.
