American composer and electronic musician born in Seattle on February 2, 1927. He composed over 100 pieces, half of which involve electronics and tape. Sadly only six of them have ever been released. On June 27, 1969 Richard took his own life by jumping out a hotel window. After his death, Maxfield's belonging were in the care of Walter de Maria. In 1975 de Maria passed them on to the DIA Foundation for cataloguing and archiving. Since 1985 the materials have been cared for by the MELA Foundation.
In 1959, Maxfield took over as instructor for John Cage's electronic music class at the New School in New York City where one of his students was La Monte Young. He also taught at San Francisco State in 1966 and 1967. In addition, he worked as a freelance audio engineer for labels including Westminster.