Richard C. Coddington is a professor emeritus of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was born in Champaign and grew up on a farm near Princeton and attended the University of Illinois and received bachelor degrees in engineering mechanics and mathematics in 1962. He then attended Kansas State University where he received an M.S. degree in engineering mechanics in 1963 and a Ph.D. degree in the same subject in 1966.
Coddington then joined the faculty of the New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, as an associate professor in 1966. In 1976, he took a position with Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. From 1972 to 1975, he was senior research engineer with Beloit Corporation in Beloit, Wisconsin. From 1975 to 1985, he was an engineering specialist with Deere Dubuque Works in Dubuque, Iowa. While with Deere, he took an appointment in 1979 as an adjunct associate professor at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
He returned to the University of Illinois and joined the department staff as an associate professor in the power and machinery division in 1985. Coddington is an authority on computer modeling of vehicle performance and taught the senior design course for power and machinery majors for a number of years.