Lee Richardson papers

Stewart Lee Richardson, Jr., was born to Margaret (Strachan) and Stewart L. Richardson in Arlington, Virginia, on July 8, 1940. He graduated from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington and received his B.S. degree from the University of Richmond in 1962. He earned an M.B.A. degree from Emory University and then a doctorate in business administration from University of Colorado in 1966. That same year, he started as an assistant professor at the Louisiana State University (LSU) School of Business and was later promoted to associate professor. He also was an adjunct professor of marketing at Southern University in Baton Rouge. In 1978, he moved to the University of Maryland at College Park and taught there until moving to the University of Baltimore in 1981.

A consumer advocate for decades, Richardson started the Louisiana Consumers League in 1968 and was its first president. He served as Consumer Education Director in the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs, was a member of the White House Consumer Advisory Council, and was the Director of the Federal Energy Administration’s Office of Consumer Affairs. He was active with the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), including a term as president, and was the American Council on Consumer Interests representative to CFA at one time. He also was a member of the National Advertising Review Board and involved in the Maryland Citizens Consumer Council, including as the latter’s executive director for a time. Richardson wrote and lectured extensively on consumer issues.

He married Doralee Forsythe while both were students at the University of Richmond, and they were the parents of three children. They later divorced. He died in Westminster, Maryland, on October 27, 2020, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s.