Richard Keatinge; Prominent Attorney and Cultural Leader

Richard H. Keatinge, a nationally recognized attorney whose expertise ranged from immigration law to coastal land rights and who was an activist for Los Angeles’ cultural causes, is dead of cancer.

His wife, Betty, said he died Saturday at UCLA Medical Center. He was 72.

In addition to serving as either managing partner or partner with several distinguished local law firms, including the Los Angeles offices of J. William Fulbright and Leon Jaworski, Keatinge spent much of his career in government service.

Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown appointed him to the California Law Revision Commission, and as a special assistant attorney general Keatinge argued the state’s claim to submerged coastal lands before the U.S. Supreme Court.

He also was a past president of the Los Angeles Assn. of Business Trial Lawyers and represented California lawyers on the Board of Governors of the American Bar Assn. It was Keatinge, his wife said, who obtained a permanent seat for California on the board of the national Bar.

Nationally, he worked with Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) and other members of Congress in helping restructure immigration laws.

A 1939 graduate of UC Berkeley, where he later became chairman of the Board of Trustees of the UC Berkeley Foundation, he received his master’s degree in economics from Harvard University in 1941 and his law degree from Georgetown University in 1944.

Keatinge was a founder of both the Los Angeles Music Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art, a life fellow of the Huntington Library and an associate of Caltech.

At his death, Keatinge was president of the Western Justice Center Foundation, 125 S. Grand Ave., Pasadena 91105, to which his family asks contributions in his name.

Besides his wife, he is survived by sons Richard and Daniel, a daughter, Nancy, and five grandchildren. A memorial service has been scheduled for Friday at 2:30 p.m. at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena.