Dr. Max Richardson served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Libya, North Africa
Dr. Max Richardson
Department Chair
Max came to Concordia College in 1990. A native of Lubbock, Texas (home of Buddy Holly), Max received his B.A. (1966) and M.A. (1968) degrees at Texas Tech University, and his Ph.D. (1986) at the University of Georgia. From 1968-1969, Max served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Libya, North Africa. He came to Concordia after a twenty-year teaching career at Black Hills State University, Spearfish, South Dakota.
Max is married to Lisa Lee Sawyer, of Magnolia, Arkansas (she was crowned "Little Miss Magnolia" in 1959!). He has two grown children, Trevor and Whitney, neither of whom he could convince to abandon the Lone Star State for an educational opportunity at Concordia College. Indeed, his whole family is amazed that every time he moves, he moves further north, further from their beloved Texas.
Max somehow survived the tenure and promotion process at Concordia, now holds the rank of Professor, and currently chairs the Political Science Department. He is Concordia's principal prelaw advisor, was named a Centennial Research Scholar in 1992 by the Concordia Faculty Center, and has presented papers at the American Political Science Association (1992), the Fifth Annual Peace Prize Forum (1993), and the Faculty Scholars lecture series at Concordia (1994). Max has also been chosen three times to participate in a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for College Teachers, the most recent during the summer of 1996 at Princeton University. In 1995 Max was named a Wye Faculty Scholar and participated in a week-long Aspen Institute seminar entitled "Citizenship in the American Polity."
Max doesn't have a "hobby" any more (he used to play piano and guitar), but he enjoys listening to music, especially rock 'n roll. His favorite artists include Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, early Elvis (Sun recording days), Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, and Neil Young. Max is first and last a political animal who is much more likely to watch C-SPAN and PBS than sit-coms. A life-long Democrat, his favorite president is (interestingly enough) Abraham Lincoln. Max enjoys reading philosophy, especially Friedrich Nietzsche. He highly recommends a recent novel about Nietzsche entitled When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin Yalom.
The photograph was taken on the Greek island of Mykanos, the last stop on his 1995 May Seminar entitled "Great Political Trials." Max is the fellow on the left wearing the colorful shirt. The beautiful woman in the middle is his wife, Lisa Lee, and the swarthy-looking character on the right is not a Greek fisherman, but Eddie Schmoll of Concordia's Classics Department.
