Skip to main content

Richardson Shoemaker was a faculty member at Catlin Gabel in Portland, OR.

He was also known by the names “Shoe” and “Dick.”

Shoemaker was employed at Catlin Gabel from 1964 to 2001. He primarily served as a 6th-grade teacher. Shoemaker also spent time teaching PE, working with students to build go-carts, arranging and leading field trips, coaching girls’ soccer, driving a school bus route, and organizing an annual fundraiser.

Shoemaker died in 2018.

An internal investigation by Catlin Gable reported that Shoemaker engaged in more than three-decades of sexual abuse as a teacher.

In the 1970s, Shoemaker molested a student at his home. The student was a friend of a Shoemaker’s daughter and was having a sleepover.

From the 1980s until his last year at Catlin Gabel, twenty-three students have reported being victims of Shoemaker’s abuse. Shoemaker publicly abused female student “by touching them inappropriately, including putting his hands inside their clothing; groping, rubbing, fondling or patting female students’ breasts and bottoms; and having students sit on his lap. . . in class when he helped them with math.”

Catlin Gabel Investigation Report

Catlin Gabel Announces Abuse Inquiry

Crew Janci is currently investigating on behalf of victims of abuse at Catlin Gabel. Crew Janci LLP is a Portland-based law firm known for representing victims of sexual abuse around the country in cases against schools and large institutions of trust. In 2017, Crew Janci LLP was featured in the New York times in relation to their successful advocacy on behalf of 21 victims of sexual abuse at an elite private school in New Jersey. Anyone with information about misconduct from Catlin Gabel teaches or staff should contact us confidentially at 1-888-407-0224 or by using our online form.

Peter Janci

Peter has represented more than one hundred victims of sexual abuse over nearly a decade. In Spring of 2010, Peter Janci served as part of the Plaintiff’s trial team in Kerry Lewis v. Boy Scouts of America — a child sexual abuse trial in Portland, Oregon that resulted in a $19.9 million verdict for the Plaintiff. Peter has tried a number of jury and bench trials, in addition to representing clients at arbitration and meditation. Peter has also helped obtain dozens of other significant settlements for other survivors of sexual abuse.