Alumna's Bequest Creates Two Chaired Professorships at Smith

A bequest from a local alumna, whom friends remember as quietly generous and a longtime supporter of education, has funded the creation of two new chaired professorships at Smith College.

Barbara Richmond's $2.8 million bequest, among the largest in the college's history, will make possible an endowed chair in the humanities and another in the social sciences.

Smith President Ruth Simmons described the professorships as a fitting use of Richmond's bequest. During her lifetime, Richmond not only gave generously to Smith but also financed the education of about a dozen people worldwide.

Richmond, who died in 1995, was a descendent of one of the Northampton area's oldest families. After graduating from the Northampton School for Girls, now the Williston Northampton School, she came to Smith and majored in history, graduating in 1940. She later served as an American Red Cross volunteer in Hawaii during World War II. Richmond's cousin, Stacy Pomeroy Draper of New York, also studied at Smith, graduating in 1976.

Other schools and colleges benefitting from Richmond's estate include the Clarke School for the Deaf, Springfield College, and Mount Holyoke College.