Obituaries

Richard Leonard Ackerman passed away quietly on September 29, 2023, at the age of 78 after a courageous battle with cancer. Like everything else in his life, he faced this challenge with grace and elegance, never losing his sense of humor and his warm smile.

The son of Warren and Anne Ackerman, Richard was born on August 31^st, 1945, at Cedars of Lebanon in Los Angeles. True to his LA pedigree, he earned a bachelor’s degree and Juris Doctorate at UCLA. He was the managing partner of Hertzfeld & Rubin for 25 years and, after retiring from law, devoted himself to real estate with his son-in-law by his side.

Richard met the love of his life, Barbara, when he was sixteen years old and knew he wanted to marry her from the moment she told him so. He liked to joke that he would call out to her across the UCLA quad, “Oh my wonderful honey who I love so much and can’t live without, hello!” An ideal match and the best of friends, Barbara and Richard were married for 53 wonderful years. They loved to travel, to go out to dinner, and to stay home together. They had two daughters, Lisa and Ondrea, in whom they instilled a love of family, the importance of tradition, a belief in the power of art, and the importance of trying new things.

Richard was a master storyteller and king of the grill. He made the perfect cosmopolitan and loved to watch re-runs of The West Wing. He hated the smell of eggs and claimed that his favorite ice cream flavor was pistachio, though no one ever saw any evidence of that.

He is survived by Barbara, Lisa, Ondrea, sons-in-law Rob and Michael, and his four grandchildren who will miss him at every baseball game, play recital, Hawaii trip, holiday dinner, and every day that he was just there – a foundational and constant part of their lives.

We were all so lucky.