He inherited the paper from his father, Edwin Grozier. Grozier was born in Brooklyn to Edwin and Alice Grozier. He immediately began working for his father"s paper, eventually rising to assistant publisher and assistant editors
However, he was given few opportunities to prove himself until his father suffered a total physical breakdown in the spring of 1920.
Graduate Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire (U.S.), 1905. Bachelor of Arts, Harvard, 1909.
The family moved to Boston in 1891, soon after Edwin bought the Post. However, he was an indifferent student. He barely maintained a C at Exeter and was "separated" (flunked out) of Harvard three times.
With his managing editor on summer vacation, Richard became operating head of the Post as acting publisher and editors
Soon afterward, Charles Ponzi set up his Securities Exchange Company a few blocks from the Post"s headquarters. Although the Post published a very positive article about Ponzi on July 24, Grozier was very skeptical of Ponzi"s claim to double his investors" money in 45 days.
He assigned several investigative reporters to check Ponzi out. He got in touch with Clarence Barron, the noted financial journalist, who expressed doubts that Ponzi"s operation could possibly be legitimate.
On July 26, the Post began running several articles that questioned whether Ponzi was on the level, causing a panic run on Ponzi"s company.
Later that month, former Post reporter William McMasters, now serving as Ponzi"s publicity man, came to Grozier with what he claimed was hard proof that Ponzi was generating his "returns" by paying new investors with old investors" money. On August 2, the Post published an article by McMasters declaring Ponzi "hopelessly insolvent," triggering yet another run. A week later, with federal and state investigators closing in on Ponzi, the Post ran an article detailing his conviction for forgery in Montreal 13 years earlier, as well as his role in a scandal-plagued Montreal bank.
Ponzi surrendered a day later.
Richard remained in day-to-day control of the Post for the next four years, and inherited the paper upon his father"s death in 1924. Within five years, he had doubled the Post"s circulation to 600,000 copies per day.
However, Peggy died in 1933 in childbirth. Richard never recovered, though he remarried to Helen Doherty in 1934.
His depression eventually became so deep that his family committed him to McLean Hospital.
Married Margaret East. Murphy, October 28, 1929 (now deceased). Married second, Helen V. Doherty, January 18, 1935.
