April 15, 2008 Jon N. Richardson

Our classmate, Jon N. Richardson died April 15, 2008 of heart failure while in a diabetic coma.I'm in debt to his friend Tom Hannan, with the input of Rick Roesch and Mickey Straus, who were also close to him, for preparing most of this obituary.

Jon came to Dartmouth from Maine Township High School in Park Ridge, Illinois. In Hanover, he was a member of Sigma Chi, which became The Tabard, and one of the best-known persons on campus. Classmates will enjoy at least a chuckle and more likely raucous laughter, when recalling some of his adventures and exploits at Colby College and elsewhere, and his running encounters with Dean Thad Seymour.

He was a member of the Navy ROTC unit. After graduation he served three years on active duty, then entered law school where he was a top student, while simultaneously working at Alexis, a upscale San Francisco discotheque, managing a hotel, and driving a cab. After a short, successful career as a lawyer, he was active in the restaurant business. He returned to law and various other businesses in his later years. At the time of his death, Jon was living in Canon City, Colo.

He made a mark on the lives of those he touched. Although he was enormously fond of the fairer sex and they of him, and took great interest in his friends' offspring, often acting as Santa Claus, he never married nor sired, to our knowledge.

In a long essay for our class publication, "More Musings," 40 years out of Hanover, Jon notably expressed some sadness at the evolution of Dartmouth, writing, "We should have a Requiem for the College. The one we knew. It has died. But it had a good life. What has happened to its Soul? Does it live? Does it live in us? What about its spirit?"

Ken Reich