Honorary Degree Recipient Anna L. Richards ’72

2021 HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENT

ANNA RICHARDS '72

Anna Richards’ name joins a list of pioneering and influential women who have been awarded honorary degrees by Westminster College. Fortyfive women comprise that illustrious list, with names such as Sarah McMichael, who became Westminster’s first female graduate in 1857 and the first woman to be awarded an honorary degree in 1868; Leah Rabin, peacemaker and wife of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin; and Gerda Lerner, a pioneer in women’s and gender history.

As the 2021 recipient of a Doctor of Humane Letters degree, honoris causa, Richards is now also included in another catalog of esteemed names. As the third Black woman to receive such an honor from Westminster, Richards shares company with 1994 recipient the Rev. Joan Salmon Campbell, the first Black female moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and famed poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, a 1995 honoree.

Richards, a 1972 alumna, has spent her life committed to creating a just society and promoting positive change. Her family was part of the Great Migration of the 20th century and relocated from rural Mississippi to Farrell, Pa., There she was raised by her parents, Henry and Martha Richards, who instilled in her a commitment to organizing and advocacy work. At age 10, she joined the local NAACP Youth Council and remained active with the organization throughout adulthood.

Upon graduating from Farrell High School in 1968, Richards matriculated to Westminster, where she excelled as an English major. An active member of the student body, Richards held the office of president for the College’s Black Student Union and served on the Black Recruitment Committee as well as the Admissions Committee. As a selfproclaimed “1970s activist, a civil rights advocate and a liberated woman,” she encouraged a diverse campus community at Westminster. She belonged to various student groups and committees such as Task Force, Peace Inc., Panhellenic Council, the English honorary society Scroll, the cheerleading squad and the Sigma Kappa sorority, for which she served as president. She completed her course requirements a semester early and departed Westminster in December 1971, but—as the first person in her family to graduate from college— she returned in spring 1972 to claim her diploma.

After earning her undergraduate degree, Richards spent 42 years working in the corporate sector, retiring in 2013 from Boeing, where she provided enterprise leadership of finance operations including payroll, payment services and supply chain financial analysis. She earned her Master of Business Administration degree from Washington University’s Olin School of Business in St. Louis, Mo.

Following her retirement, Richards relocated from Seattle, Wash., to Chapel Hill, N.C., where she quickly became a major organizing force for equality and a member of the area’s NAACP chapter. After being elected branch president of the NAACP, she led the organization through a period of reorganization and engagement. Richards advocated for education equality, police reform, voter education and a number of other issues affecting marginalized groups in her region. Under her leadership, the NAACP Chapel Hill-Carrboro earned several awards, including the North Carolina NAACP Branch of the Year in 2017 and 2018, as well as a prestigious national NAACP Thalheimer Award in 2019 for branch programming and membership growth.

In 2019, Richards was recognized as the North Carolina NAACP Branch President of the Year. Most recently, in recognition of her leadership and service to her community, Richards earned the 2020 Citizen of the Year Award from the Chamber for a Greater Chapel HillCarrboro.

We’re saving a seat for you.

While the curtain came down on the 2020-2021 Celebrity Series season, we are happy to announce that we have been busy making plans for an exciting 2021-2022 season!