KEENE RICHARDS
1888 - 1953
The Faculty of Vassar College records its deep sorrow
on the sudden death of Keene Richards, General Manager
and Consulting Engineer, and mentor, champion and
friend. Mr. Richards served Vassar College and its
faculty well for 28 years. The quality of his admin-
istration was sumed up by a firm of professional
management experts, after exhaustive investigation, in
these words: "Vassar is doing an outstanding job of
business management, one which leaves little room for
a survey to develop savings of significance.... These
comments are intended....as a commendation to Vassar
College for a job well done." Mr. Richards died in the
master's cabin of his beloved cruiser Wivern, to the
end captain of his ship and captain of himself.
Keene Richards, engineer, army officer, administrator, was
first and foremost an educator. He believed in education;
he believed in Vassar College and its faculty; the quality
of Vassar was his obsession. All of his official actions
were taken with one sole aim, the welfare and prospering
of Vassar College. To this end his supervision of the
large staff under him was tough and exacting, but fair
and generous; he was regarded with their respect, their
trust and their affection. To this end he husbanded
the resources of the college with painstaking care; the
regard was solvency and well-being. To this end he
supported, encouraged and championed the faculty; his
reward was the profoundness of ou grief. To this end
he fattened and watched over the students, in whom his
faith was so profound; his regard is the affection and
honor of the alumnae. To this end he time and again
served his community in difficult assignments; his reward
was the high esteem of its citizens and prestige for his
college. Dependable, logical, consistent, uniquely able
to get down to the essentials of a problem, he adhered
stubbornly to his high standards in all of his acts.
Reserved in manner, he was accessible to all; critical
in approach, he had real affection for people, and his
acts of kindness were unpublicized and unnumbered.
His memory will long be with us, for, in the words of a
veteran member of his staff, "Look around you, he's
still here."
Theodore Erck
Eileen Thornton
Rudolf T. Kempton
XIII - 405-406