Tucker Carlson has announced that his father, Richard Warner Carlson, has died.
In an obituary posted on X, Carlson said his father died at home on Monday in Boca Grande, Florida at the age of 84 after six weeks of illness.
"He refused all painkillers to the end and left this world with dignity and clarity, holding the hands of his children with his dogs at his feet," Carlson wrote.
Richard Carlson possessed an "outlaw spirit tempered by decency" that led him on an adventurous career in journalism and government affairs - all while remaining dedicated to two sons he raised on his own, Tucker Carlson wrote.
In his time as an investigative reporter for ABC News in California, Carlson knew the most interesting personalities of the day, including Jim Jones, Patty Hearst, Eric Hoffer, and Jerry Garcia, "as well as Mafia leaders and members of the Manson Family," Tucker Carlson wrote.
Richard Carlson later took on government roles, moving to Washington in 1985 to work in the Reagan administration as director of Voice of America and then as U.S. ambassador to Seychelles under the George H. W. Bush administration. In the 1990s, Carlson became CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and also led a division of King World television.
Obituary for my father.
Richard Warner Carlson died at 84 on March 24, 2025 at home in Boca Grande, Florida after six weeks of illness. He refused all painkillers to the end and left this world with dignity and clarity, holding the hands of his children with his dogs at his… pic.twitter.com/4lMygMkSIT
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 26, 2025
In his later years, Carlson traveled the world and got involved in "countless intrigues" in dozens of countries, his work remaining a mystery to his own family.
"He spoke to his sons every day and had lunch with them once a week for thirty years at the Metropolitan Club in Washington, always prefaced by a dice game. Throughout his life he fervently loved dogs," the obituary read.
Born February 10, 1941, Richard Carlson was left at an orphanage in Boston, where he developed rickets. His adoptive father, a tannery manager, died when he was 12.
After a volatile youth that saw him jailed for car theft, he set out for California in 1962, where he worked as a merchant seaman for one year before entering journalism as a copyboy at the Los Angeles Times, later becoming a wire service reporter for UPI and an investigative reporter and anchor for ABC News.
In 1975, Carlson became a single father to his two sons, Tucker and Buckley, after splitting from their mother, artist Lisa McNear Lombardi. She left for Europe, never to return, and Carlson raised the boys in San Diego, California.
"He threw himself into raising his boys, whom he often brought with him on reporting trips," Tucker Carlson wrote.
Richard Carlson married frozen dinner heiress Patricia Swanson in 1979, and they were happily married until her death sixteen months before Carlson's own, according to the obituary.
He is survived by his sons, Tucker and Buckley, his beloved daughter-in-law Susie, and five grandchildren.
"He was the toughest human being anyone in his family ever knew, and also the kindest and most loyal. RIP," Tucker Carlson wrote.
