Hayes Ayres Richardson (1901-1971) Papers (KC278)
Hayes Richardson was born in Toano, Virginia. He received his A.B. degree from Randolph Macon College in 1922; his M.A. in Economics from the University of Kansas in 1929; and his Ph.D. in Economics from Johns Hopkins University in 1938, where his dissertation was on "License Taxation in Maryland." He taught at several schools including Randolph-Macon Academy, the University of Kansas, and North Carolina State College. He worked as an economist with the United States Department of Agriculture from 1934-1936. He came to Kansas City to teach economics at the University of Kansas City in 1936. He served as Chairman of the Economics Department in the late 1930's and continued to teach an occasional class there during his tenure as Director of Welfare for the City of Kansas City, Missouri from 1940 until 1959. Following his resignation, Dr. Richardson taught in the Economics and Business Departments of National College, Kansas City, Missouri and Central Methodist College, Fayette, Missouri. He retired as Chairman of the Department at Central Methodist in June 1971. He also served one term on the Raytown School Board from 1961-1964. In 1926, he married Margaret Switzer, who had graduated from Randolph Macon Womans College in 1923 with Phi Beta Kappa honors. They had one daughter, Sarah Margaret.
Most of the items included in the collection pertain to the period that Dr. Richardson headed the Welfare Department of Kansas City. The Department encompassed many areas: Social Services casework, parole, penal institutions and animal shelter; Community Service; Legal Aid; Recreation; Regulation of Commercial Amusements; the Municipal Markets; and Administration. The papers contain newspaper clippings, correspondence, reports, and photographs. There are also materials relating to Richardson's Ph.D. dissertation on taxation in Maryland, and correspondence relating to his teaching positions. Richardson's race for city councilman in 1963 is shown mostly through newspaper clippings, copies of flyers, and a little correspondence. Papers and newspaper articles illustrating Richardson's interest in economics are also present, such as a folder concerning labor in the 1930's and a scrapbook with many newspaper articles relating to federal economic conditions in the late 1930's. Dr. Richardson came to Kansas City at the end of "the Pendergast era" and his collection also includes a scrapbook of newspaper clippings from 1939, when Pendergast was investigated, as well as various other articles and flyers relating to the cleaning up of government. His other scrapbooks mostly relate to the Welfare Department, but also include articles concerning Kansas City, its government and politicians, as well as articles about Richardson. Two of the scrapbooks are "memory books" of trips taken with Mayor John B. Gage. ca. 1933-1971.
2 cubic feet; 15 scrapbooks (MICROFILM)
© WHMC-KC, University of Missouri
updated:
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Kansas City
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