Early on he considered a career in radio. The sailor, they called “Sinbad” at Wake Forest, where he had his own radio show, had served in the Navy during the Korean War and was promoted to the rank of petty officer in less than two years service. He worked his way through college to supplement his G.I. Bill. He was president of his fraternity. Even as his mind was going over the last several years, many of his last memories were of college and navy days. William Howard Richardson, an uncommon common man, died of complications related to Alzheimer’s on June 8, 2009 at Hospice of the Golden Isles in Brunswick, Georgia and was buried in the City Cemetery at Jesup, Georgia. He was 76.
The North Carolina native left college in Winston-Salem and went to work for Procter and Gamble in 1959. He never held another job. He continued with P&G until 1993, despite an accident in 1990 in which he suffered a broken back, displaying remarkable tenacity and old school commitment. The career he loved took him and his family from North Carolina to Virginia Beach to Atlanta in 1969, where he remained until his retirement as a District Manager in Military Sales. He managed the Southeastern United States, Puerto Rico and the Panama Canal Zone where he worked with armed forces commissary officers throughout the region.
He was a member of the Old Guard of the Gate City Guard in Atlanta and the Sons of the American Revolution, as well as a lay reader at the Cathedral of St Philip in Atlanta.
He is survived by his college sweetheart and wife of 52 years, Dora Gaynelle Walker Richardson, two sons, William Roderick Richardson and Raymond Byron Richardson and two grandsons Raymond Parker Richardson and James Walker Richardson.