Jon Richards, ’66, Bond #1106

The Early Years
Jon was born in Mount Vernon, OH in 1944 to John and Mary Helen Richards. John was serving with the US Army in France so for the first year Jon was raised in Delaware by his mother and grandparents. Upon his father’s return in late 1945, the new postwar family settled in Delaware where John later became the Delaware postmaster, serving until retirement in 1978. With a Delaware home, Jon’s primary and secondary education took place in the shadow of Ohio Wesleyan as he attended schools on W. William St. — elementary at the large brick school building (since leveled to make a sports field) across from Stuyvesant Hall — then junior and senior high school in the large brick school building at the corner of William and Franklin Streets. He and his schoolmates constantly shared the sidewalks and shops of town with OWU students and coeds coming and going from main campus to the dormitories.

As one of the local “kids,” he could often be found on Saturday afternoons in the fall at Selby Stadium (throwing a peewee football beyond the end zones or in the top row on the distant side of the field); near the sulphur spring watching the frosh and sophs go at it after home football games; in hot, noisy Edwards Gym hanging over the upstairs rail and cheering for the Bishops; or with his parents at a Gray Chapel music or cultural event. Being a pretty decent student in high school, it was probably natural that Jon would go on to attend Ohio Wesleyan.

Other than academics and the usual part-time jobs of growing up — paper routes, summer work with the highway department, and a retail job at CJ Wilsons of Course, the long-time downtown Delaware clothing store — participation in sports was a constant in Jon’s years before college. “I was a very keen and a regular participant during my school years in basketball, football, baseball and track; but I was really a pretty middling athlete in high school.” Of relevance here is that having been a “late bloomer” he reports that he continues to be a fitness devotee adhering to a largely vegetarian diet and engaging regularly in Masters and open water swimming, competitive small boat racing, as well as skiing and backpacking.

Beta Theta Pi
Joining a fraternity was nearly synonymous with being a male student at Ohio Wesleyan in the early 1960’s as over 85% of OWU males affiliated with houses. Rush occurred immediately for freshmen arriving on campus in the fall, just after the traditional freshman camp. Jon had often heard the term “Beta” while growing up as his Uncle Bob (Bob Richards ’50) had been an OWU Beta in the late 40’s, having joined upon returning from WWII service with the Air Force in Europe and using the GI Bill for college. Also, life-long close family friends were Tom (Ida) Farahay ’49. Tom was also a post WWII OWU Beta and served as long-time Chapter Advisor in the 1950’s and 60’s. (Note: Uncle Bob’s son and Jon’s cousin, Rob Richards ’77, would later become a Theta Beta in the mid-70’s.)

An agreement among a small group of newly-made friends from freshman camp to pledge the same house quickly came apart as several of the group were legacies and quickly fell into the Phi Delt and Phi Psi camps. Jon who already had the above-mentioned natural affinity to Beta, had been quite impressed on his visit to the Beta house during “closed” rush with the friendly and easy-going casual style along with the rather evident diversity of personalities that he had a chance to meet at 9 Williams Drive. Among those that he had a chance to interact with were Brothers Eli Short ’54, Andres/Andy Duarte ’65, and Andy Feld (then-president). Once the open rush period commenced and the Betas started to sound the airborne, ring the bell from the 3rd floor side doorway, and pile out of the house to cheer, it did not take long for Jon to get caught up in the excitement and join one of what was to become a large pledge class of approximately 35. This class swelled the numbers of the house to close to 100. To Jon’s recollection, and great appreciation in the years since, the Betas were a house of rather broad diversity (unlike some of the others on campus). As far as geography, there was a good mix of men from the East (public and private schools), from Ohio and the Midwest, from cities and small towns, a few from the Western and Southern US and abroad.

In his four years at Wesleyan, Jon became actively involved in the house and on campus. He had a stint as a dishwasher in the kitchen of the house, served for a year as House Manager, and in his senior year was fraternity president. For two of the four years he lived in the house. As a “townie,” he lived at home his freshman year but took meals at the house. His junior year he served as a Resident Advisor next door in Thomson Hall with about a half-dozen Beta pledges living on his corridor that year. In his sophomore year, Jon shared a second floor 3-man room in the house with Geoff Magrath (’66) and Tom Sanders (’66), two brothers who would later be in his wedding (the latter as best man) in 1968 to Kathy Bardone Richards (OWU/Pi Phi ’68) in Prairie Village, Kansas.

As chapter president during his senior year, one of his responsibilities was to escort the housemother, Mom Stewart, to dinners. He recalled quite well the “fine balance” that sometimes existed with escorting “Mom” and maintaining an atmosphere of appropriate decorum while at the same time accommodating some of the activities of the more rambunctious brothers. Other tensions well-remembered were the need to balance the house and university policies of that era regarding alcohol possession/ consumption with the social expectations and activities of a large group of young males. The tension played out in such activities as the in-house Quo Vadis and Tom Jones parties as well, as the off-campus events including “The Hot Nuts” party (with the SAE’s) and parties at “the barn”.

At the encouragement of Brothers Frank Schneider (’63) and Jim Ginsburg (’66), Jon took up the sport of lacrosse as a freshman (unlike the present, one could do that then!) and was on the OWU team for four years. While the sport was a new one to Jon, it was to play an important role for him for a number of years following graduation. He was also a keen participant on the Beta intramural teams contributing to the various team sports. The house had a number of pretty good athletes at that time, some varsity players and some good ex-high school athletes, who all contributed to making the Betas competitive for the all-campus IM trophy each year. One year in the mid-60’s found the Betas winning the campus championship, and in the top 2 or 3 places in the other years.

IM football was one interesting aspect of Beta life in the mid-60’s and merits a few words. Many brothers played on the team and almost the entire house, many with dates, turned out for the games. The activity was a source of pride and spirit for the brothers in the early months of the new academic year as the team, under the tutelage of quarterback/coach Brother Dick Slivka ’67 (a varsity OWU all-conference infielder on the baseball team), practiced several times a week, had diagramed 70 or so plays on index cards (that were carried by Slivka in his back pocket during the games), filmed the games (for “grading,” for enjoyment, etc.), and had great success winning most games by sizeable margins and dominating the campus leagues over several years. (One pressing question!…What happened to those films? Does anyone know?)

OWU Graduation and More
Upon graduation from Ohio Wesleyan in June ‘66, Jon attended the University of Michigan receiving an MBA in Finance in 1968. While at Michigan, he continued with lacrosse and played defense on the U of M Club team and had the opportunity to continue competing against some of the Midwestern teams that had been faced earlier at Ohio Wesleyan. Following the two years at Michigan, Jon and Kathy were married in the summer, and moved to Maine where Jon was on the faculty at Bridgton Academy, a private school for post-grads in North Bridgton. While there, he taught mathematics, served as a dorm master, and also as an athletic coach for each of the three sports seasons. In his first year at Bridgton, he started the lacrosse program and served as head coach for two years. An “adventurous spirit” (and an accommodating wife!) led to a decision to move west in the early 1970’s, first to a teaching position in Idaho and subsequently to the mountains of Colorado where, besides living for awhile with Brother Frank Scott (’66) and his wife Vicki who had recently started a ski and gift shop in Breckenridge in Summit County (following Scotty’s time as a US Air Force officer in Wyoming), Jon was able to secure a position with the US National Park Service in Denver working in the area of boundary changes and land acquisition.

It was at this time in Denver that Jon re-connected with Brother Jim Carpenter (’67) who had himself migrated west from a lacrosse/soccer coaching position at William and Mary University in the East. Jim was also living in the mountains near Rocky Mtn. National Park, and introduced Jon and Kathy to an intriguing business opportunity … the purchase of a mountain lodge/restaurant that was for sale. Initially, this entrepreneurial (ad)venture was considered jointly by Jon and Kathy and Brother Tony Martin (’66) and his wife Linda. Tony had recently finished a tenure as a Navy officer/pilot and had returned from SE Asia to civilian life. Tony, however; landed a position as an airline pilot, so Jon and Kathy decided to make the leap to lodge ownership on their own. They operated the lodge/restaurant near Allenspark, Colorado on the boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park seasonally and successfully for six years. In the winters, with caretaker/managers maintaining the lodge, Jon and Kathy worked resort area restaurants elsewhere in the mountains and “ski-bummed” in Vail, Steamboat Springs, and Big Sky, Montana (living the winter in Vail with Brother Don Adams ’66). After six years of operating the lodge, the couple sold the operation and decided to pursue a different lifestyle working as academic directors for the Experiment in International Living (now World Learning) in Oxford, England, followed by London and then Colombo, Sri Lanka. While in England Jon once again played lacrosse, as one of several “expats,” for two more seasons with the University of Oxford lacrosse team. His connections there as well as with Coach Jay Martin at OWU provided the opportunity to organize a USA tour by the Oxford lacrosse team in the spring of 1979 in which the “tourists” played Ohio Wesleyan, Denison and Kenyon with the English players staying in dorms and rooming with the US players (and marveling at US campus life as well as the ability to get pizzas delivered to dorm rooms!)

Following the time abroad and with Colorado as a home base, Jon returned to graduate work at the University of Colorado and received an MA in Economics, specializing in international development. Also, Kathy and Jon after 12 years of marriage and “vagabonding” found themselves in new territory with the birth of their first child, son Cameron (who would later go on to attend and graduate from OWU, Phi Delt ’03). Upon his graduation from CU and with a new son, Jon took a position with the University running a business development outreach program in Grand Junction, Colorado. During 5 years of work in western Colorado, a daughter Alison (Denison, Pi Beta Phi ’06) was born.

A subsequent opportunity to return to the British Isles came up in 1988, and Jon and Kathy moved their young family to Belfast, Northern Ireland where Jon took a position with the Northern Ireland Small Business Institute at the University of Ulster. Jon developed and implemented management training programs, taught at the University, and conducted business research while Kathy earned an MA in French, and the children attended Northern Irish schools. Among the cultural highlights of the 4 years in Ireland was the chance to take the family “to the mainland” on annual summer camping holidays in France.

Aging parents and a need to settle the children into a longer-term setting brought the Richards back to the coast of Oregon where Jon took a position as director of a business development program at Southwestern Oregon Community College. Kathy secured a French teaching position in the local high school.

Coastal Oregon proved to be a favorable setting for the Richards as they have recently passed the 20-year mark in their time there. Though Coos Bay, North Bend is a rather remote location, Jon’s work, as well as his previous experience provided him the opportunity to become quite involved in the local community serving on numerous boards including the regional hospital (currently serving as board chair), United Way, the local chamber of commerce, the area historical museum and Rotary International. He also has been able to maintain his interest in international economic development activities by working on consulting projects in such diverse areas as the Balkans, Eastern and Central Europe, SE and Central Asia, and the Middle East.

Retirement
Since retiring in 2007, Jon and Kathy have remained on the Oregon coast. Their two children have chosen other parts of the world in which to live. Daughter Ali is married to an Australian and lives in Perth, Australia. Son, Cameron, also married, is living in Denver where he is an attorney.

Other than Jon’s board work, occasional consulting projects, and travel, the couple spend some time at a vacation home in North Bend (central) Oregon. Particularly enjoyable in recent years has been re-connecting with Beta brothers. Highlights of the latter include the OWU Athletic Hall of Fame Induction activities of Brother Jim Ginsburg (’66) several years ago which were attended by many brothers (as well as other OWU lax players) from the years ’65 to ’68; a reunion the following spring at the homes of Geoff Magrath (’66) and Rich Amendola (’67) in Aiken, South Carolina attended by Brothers Scott (’66), Sanders (’66), Ginsburg (’66), Robert “Spike” Reed (’66), Martin (’66), KumLeh/Jon Yuen (’66), Dick Slivka (’65), Juan Sykora (’67), and Andy Duarte (’65); and occasional visits by Beta brothers who find their way to the southern Oregon coast.

Jon suggested that he would be pleased to be the organizer/ convenor of a reunion of brothers from the mid-60’s either in Delaware or elsewhere if there is sufficient interest. Suggestions are welcome for a location as coastal Oregon is probably not terribly convenient! If interested in such a get-together, you can contact him at joncrichards@gmail.com or 541-756-1768.

Family and Friends
Jon resides at 2293 McPherson, North Bend, OR 97459
Your brothers all join me in saying, “Thank God, Jon, you’re a Beta”.