Richard Rudolph (born Oct 27, 1946 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American songwriter, musician, music publisher and producer. He was married to legendary singer-songwriter Minnie Riperton and co-wrote many of her songs including "Lovin' You," “Inside My Love, “ “Adventures In Paradise,” “Les Fleurs” and "Memory Lane.”
Rudolph is the son of Muriel Eileen (Neufeld) and Sidney J. Rudolph. His grandfather, Julius, changed his surname from "Rudashevsky" to "Rudolph," and was one of the founding members of Congregation Beth Shalom in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Rudolph started in the music business as a songwriter at Chicago’s legendary Chess Records in 1969. One of his first compositions to be recorded was the title song for Minnie Riperton’s debut solo album, “Come To My Garden.” This began a multi-song collaboration with Charles Stepney, the renowned producer of Earth, Wind and Fire fame. Together they wrote many songs for Ms. Riperton and The Rotary Connection.
Richard Rudolph (June 11, 1911 – January 31, 2014) was the last surviving victim of “double persecution” in that he was incarcerated for nearly nine years in Nazi prisons and concentration camps and then was imprisoned for a further ten years in the communist German Democratic Republic, known informally as East Germany. He was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen, Neuengamme, and Ravensbrück concentration camps and the Salzgitter-Watenstedt Leinde subcamp of Neuengamme in addition to various police, penitentiary and juvenile prisons.
Grounds for his imprisonment and persecution in the Nazi era were his stand as a conscientious objector, for which he barely escaped being executed on several occasions, and his beliefs as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Jehovah’s Witnesses supported neither Nazi racist and militaristic policies nor Communist suppression of religion. Rudolph’s experiences have been documented in the book Im Zeugenstand: Was wir noch sagen sollten, 100 Fragen—900 Antworten, Interviews mit Holocaust-Überlebenden und NS-Opfern, released in English as Taking the Stand: We Have More to Say, 100 Questions—900 Answers, Interviews with Holocaust Survivors and Victims of Nazi Tyranny, Xlibris, published in 2012 by Bernhard Rammerstorfer, well-regarded author and film producer regarding Holocaust subjects.