Richard Carlson’s adoptive father, a tannery manager, died when he was 12. He became a juvenile delinquent, arrested and jailed at 17 for car theft. He eventually enlisted in the Marine Corps and was ...

Carlson moved his sons to San Diego after his first wife, Lisa McNear Lombardi, abandoned the family in 1976. He eventually met and married Patricia Swanson, the heiress to the Swanson frozen ...

In 1979, Mr. Carlson married Patricia Caroline Swanson, an heiress to the Swanson frozen-food empire. She died in 2023. In addition to his two sons, survivors include five grandchildren.