Richard Rogers Peabody (13 January 1892 – 26 April 1936) grew up as a member of the upper class in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Groton, where his grandfather was headmaster, and later enrolled at Harvard as had many of his family before him. He married Polly Jacob, the daughter of another blue-blooded Boston family with whom he had two children. He served as a captain during World War I in the American Expeditionary Force.