Richard Kweku Abusua-Yedom Quarshie was a politician businessman and diplomat. He was also the Minister of State in the second republic.

He was born on March 6 1918 in Ewusiadjo, near Dixcove in the Western Region. He attended the Achimota School and trained as a Barrister at Lincoln's Inn, London.

Richard Kweku Abusua-Yedom Quarshie became a Labor Officer in 1945 and was employed by the Foreign Service. Was in 1963, the Sub-director and Resident Director of the Consolidated African Selection Trust Ltd. (CAST), which operates in diamond mining.

He also became the Founding President of the Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC) and later became President of the Ghana Cocoa Board in 1968.

Quarshie was appointed as a Commissioner for Trade and Industry during the NLC era. He was elected as a member of parliament to represent the Ahanta constituency in the 1st Parliament of the 2nd Republic.

Quarshie was one of Ghana's first diplomats who set up missions in London and Paris and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs when he was sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo on 22 November 1960. He was brought to Leopoldville by Henry Templer Alexander, the then Chief of Defence Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces.

He replaced Nathaniel Welbeck, the then Ghanaian ambassador (chargé d'affaires) to Congo. Welbeck's residence was besieged by the Congo military upon allegations that he was plotting against Mobutu's regime with the then deposed Patrice Lumumba. Quarshie was arrested in his hotel by Congolese soldiers and held for an hour.

That same year he was appointed Minister for Trade and Industries and he remained in that position until 13 January 1972 when the Busia government was overthrown by the SMC.

He was married to Emma Wilhelmina Philips (1917–2004). He also had a traditional marriage to Elizabeth Oheneba Akua Asafu-Adjaye with whom he had five sons (Alan, Richard, James, Mordecai, and Michael Quarshie). His son Hugh Quarshie is a British actor.