Peru and Brzail RPCV Michael Rchardson dies



In 1988, Richardson was a founding director of Housing Vermont, a nonprofit development company that combines public and private money to create permanently affordable apartments and, said Brenda Torpy, the head of Burlington Community Land Trust, earned a national reputation for that approach. Richardson spent five years with the Peace Corps in Peru and Brazil from 1962 to 1967, then lived in New Mexico before moving to Burlington in 1978.

Peru and Brzail RPCV Michael Rchardson dies

Michael Richardson dies

Published: Saturday, May 6, 2006
By John Briggs
Free Press Staff Writer

Michael Richardson, by all accounts a genial man, spent much of his adult life working to create affordable housing in Burlington and across Vermont. A week after his death April 27 of an unexpected heart attack at age 66, he was remembered both as a consummate professional and "a real gentleman."

His wife, Emily Wadhams, recalled his more puckish side.

"Mike had a wonderful imagination," she said.

Richardson's April 30 obituary related in a matter-of-fact tone that he was a founder of Capital Ideas Inc., a private consulting firm dealing with affordable housing, "and Club Monk, a retirement community for aging hippies."

Wadhams chuckled at the mention of the club.

"It was only in his mind," she said. "A fanciful idea. We talked about it for years and years. It would have been non-profit, of course. A beautiful spot where nothing happened."

Jeffry Glassberg, Richardson's longtime partner at Capital Ideas, said that while Richardson was widely respected for his professional expertise, "he brought creativity, humor and humanity to a field that oftentimes lacks those qualities or wrings it out of the best of us. He was a real renaissance man."

Brian Pine, the city's housing director, remembered Richardson as a man "who spent his whole adult life in service to people in poverty" without losing his own humanity. "He was a very soft-spoken, kind and bright person, a bright source of energy to be around."

Rich Feeley, a private-sector real estate developer and property manager, called Richardson "a classy guy, a real gentleman."

Feeley said Richardson had a gift for disarming potential critics. Affordable housing development, he said, "when it comes to the nitty-gritty, sometimes people don't want it in their back yards. He had the ability to champion the cause because he was believable."

"He brought entrepreneurial zeal to the non-profit housing world," Glassberg said. "The model in which companies could invest in developing housing in the communities in which they do business and see the tangible benefits of that investment, has since been emulated around the country."

Richardson spent five years with the Peace Corps in Peru and Brazil from 1962 to 1967, then lived in New Mexico before moving to Burlington in 1978.

Pine said Richardson, as executive director, transformed the fledgling King Street Neighborhood Revitalization Corp. in the late 1970s from a group of idealistic but ineffectual neighbors into a force that renovated nearly 200 apartments -- housing, Pine said, that remains affordable.

In 1988, Richardson was a founding director of Housing Vermont, a nonprofit development company that combines public and private money to create permanently affordable apartments and, said Brenda Torpy, the head of Burlington Community Land Trust, earned a national reputation for that approach.

Andy Broderick, who has headed Housing Vermont for the last five years, said Richardson raised $85 million and created 1,374 housing units in the first five years of the organization.

"He brought a high level of sophistication, but with a very easy manner," Broderick said.

His death was "a huge loss" for the affordable housing movement, Torpy said. "There are just a handful of people in Vermont who have his vision and financial skills," she said. "It's really felt."

Torpy, in common with others who spoke with personal sadness of Richardson's death, said he was always a man who had a life beyond housing. "He was interested in art and literature, very well-read," she said. "Smart and articulate and engaged. He was happy -- a joyful man."

Contact John Briggs at 660-1863 or jbriggs@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com.

When this story was posted in May 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:




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