Awards

Bicentennial Medal - 2019

About R. Ray Richardson

R. Ray Richardson is an IU alumnus and former member of the IU Board of Trustees. Richardson earned a BS in political science from Purdue University in 1959, and a law degree from the IU School of Law in 1962 (now the IU Maurer School of Law). He was elected in 1992 to serve on the IU Board of Trustees by the alumni of Indiana University, and served three terms on the board.

Richardson worked as an attorney for a private practice in Greenfield, Indiana, where he has been a county attorney from 1969 through 2017. A committed public servant, Richardson was a member of the Indiana House of Representatives from 1966 to 1990. As a member of the board of trustees he served on President Myles Brand’s Strategic Directions Steering Committee and on the trustees’ Campus and Community committee. At his request, all chancellors devised and implemented methods to improve graduation rates, which resulted in a wide variety of tutoring opportunities and a restructuring of the freshman math course. Awards to faculty for teaching were expanded and emphasized, and for the first time, Bloomington faculty members could obtain tenure based primarily on their teaching ability.

Richardson was a member of the American Judicature Society and a former volunteer division chairman with the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, and United Way. He is also the co-founder of the Hancock Hope House, a shelter in Greenfield, Indiana, serving homeless individuals and families. He is a fifth-year member of the Greenfield Kiwanis Club.

Richardson received the IU Bicentennial Medal in September 2019 in recognition of his distinguished service as a trustee on the IU Board of Trustees.