Richard Goldwater, President and Co-Publisher of Archie Comics, died last Tuesday. He was the son of John Goldwater who, together with partners Louis Silberkleit and Maurice Coyne, formed the company now known as Archie in the late thirties. (The firm was originally called MLJ Publications with those letters standing for Maurice, Louis and John. Archie Andrews debuted in 1941 and soon became so popular that the whole company was renamed in his honor.)
In the grand tradition of nepotism that ruled almost every comic book company from the forties through the sixties, Richard Goldwater went to work for his father's company around 1950, focusing primarily on editorial content. He was 14 or 15 years old at the time and by 1957, he'd assumed real editorial duties. In much the same way, Michael Silberkleit (son of Louis) joined the firm but he was more interested in the business end of things. In the early eighties, Richard Goldwater and Michael Silberkleit formally purchased Archie Comics, Inc. from their fathers, the interests of the Coyne family having been acquired some time earlier. Richard soon handed the main editor job to Victor Gorelick but remained involved in creative decisions.
I'm afraid I don't know a lot more than that about Richard Goldwater. I presume the company will put out some sort of obit/press release and that they'll have better information than I do and more of it. I'll post a link whenever there's something to link to.