On January 10, 1931, Rich married his first wife, Gertrude Verity Braun, the daughter of a Barnard College professor who was head of the German Department, and they had a daughter, Verity Sutherland, born in 1940. Gertrude died in 1953, and Rich married his second wife, Helen Gill Field the same year. At the time of his death, he was survived by his second wife, Helen; his daughter, Verity Rich Hallinan; a granddaughter; a niece, Eleanor Van Staagen Mitchell; and a nephew.