Richard Tolliver was born in Springfield, Ohio, in 1945 and received his Master of Divinity from the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1971. He was ordained a deacon and priest that same year. He holds a number of other degrees, including a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio; Master of Arts degrees in political science and Afro-American studies from Boston University; and a Ph.D. in political science from Howard University in Washington, D.C..

Tolliver served as a rector for St. Cyprian's Church in Boston, Massachusetts and St. Timothy's Church in Washington, D.C., and a curate for St. Philip's Church in New York, New York. While in the United States Peace Corps, he worked as an associate country director in Kenya and as a country director in Mauritania. Upon his return from Africa, Tolliver became a professor at Howard University.

In June of 1989, Tolliver became the rector at St. Edmund's Church in Chicago, Illinois, a position he held until his retirement in 2017. Established in 1905, the church originally served people of Greek and Irish descent. By the 1920s, the congregation was composed largely of middle and upper class Black families. At the time of Tolliver’s arrival, the church was suffering from financial problems in a neighborhood which was deep in decay and suffering from long-standing neglect. Tolliver put himself to the task of revitalizing his parish and neighborhood. In 1990, he established the St. Edmund’s Redevelopment Corporation (SERC) to purchase and renovate multifamily buildings in the neighborhood, ultimately rebuilding more than 450 housing units.  He also organized the Michigan Avenue/Indiana Block Club, which worked with the Chicago Police Department to reduce neighborhood crime. Additionally, during Tolliver’s tenure, St. Edmund’s opened the International Charter School/St. Edmund’s Campus, a school serving over one hundred students from kindergarten through fifth grade.