Richard Haas was born in 1936 in Spring Green Wisconsin. He grew up in Milwaukee after his family moved there during WWII. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1954 till his graduation in 1959 with a Bachelor in Art and Art Education degree. During the summer months of 1955 and 1956, however, he returned to his native Spring Green to work as a stonemason assistant to his great uncle, George Haas, who was the Master Stonemason at Taliesin, the home of Frank Lloyd Wright. His residence there allowed him to observe all aspects of Mr. Wright’s and the Fellowship’s activities.