Thomas R. Richards ’63

Thomas R. Richards ’63 died on October 1, 2024, in Santa Barbara, California. He was born and raised in Chicago and attended Evanston Township High School, where he participated in football, track, and glee club. He attended Dartmouth on a scholarship from the Pullman Educational Foundation and majored in economics. He was treasurer and president of Phi Gamma Delta, a member of Sphinx, and participated in the Interfraternity Council and Navy ROTC (although a knee injury gave him a military deferment). Tom was an active volunteer on the class executive committee for 20 years and participated in the Alumni Fund and as an admissions volunteer and regional club officer. He started his career with Inland Steel and switched to Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, where he worked for 40 years, becoming managing partner of his own agency in Denver. He ended up as a vice president for agency development at the Home Office in Milwaukie, Oregon, mentoring insurance professionals. He bicycled all over the United States and Europe, including a 50-day trip from Astoria, Oregon, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Tom was a certified counselor with SCORE, a Small Business Administration volunteer arm, and was active in Social Venture Partners, a nonprofit that provides funding and counseling to other nonprofits. Tom was a devoted Christian, living through a divorce and finding Susan in 1988, who became his wife of 36 years. She survives him, with three sons (including Charles ’92) and five grandchildren.