riccards grew up in new jersey and received his bachelor's, master's, and ph.d. in political science from rutgers university; he finished his formal studies in 1970. riccards was named a fulbright fellow to japan in 1973 and a henry huntington fellow in california in 1974. in 1975, he joined princeton university as a national endowment for the humanities fellow in religion. his main interests were political socialization and political behavior; he used stage theory in his research to learn how children get their political and later religious values.