December 11, 1936 – December 26, 2025
LIFE STORY
Before becoming the Alderman for Milwaukee’s 9th District, Don Richards was a priest in the Milwaukee Archdiocese from 1963-1982. He participated in Milwaukee’s open housing marches in the 1960s. He attended the St. Francis Seminary and Catholic University in Washington, D.C. where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He ran unsuccessfully for Wisconsin State Representative in 1982 and alderman in 1984. He worked as an economic development specialist with the Northwest Side Community Development Corporation. While in office, he was a member of the Judiciary and Legislation Committee, Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee, the Housing Authority and City Records Committee. In 1998 he began teaching classes at Alverno College on local government. He decided not to run for re-election for health reasons, and retired in 2004.
MEMORIES
I met Father Don in the fall of 1971 when Karen and I were assigned to help open the Milwaukee Religious House. At the time he was the lead priest at Saint Veronica’s Roman Catholic Parish on the city’s south side. He recently had taken the Parish Leadership Colloquy (PLC) taught by The Ecumenical Institute. He had become a strong supporter of the “Spirit Movement” in addition to the awakening of his social consciousness through his interactions with fellow-priest, Father James Groppi, noted for leading mass demonstrations against housing discrimination and segregation in Milwaukee.
Along the way Don attended other courses of the EI and attended two-week segments of the eight-week Academy. He attended portions of the summer programs held each year. It was easy for him to get down to Chicago from Milwaukee so he would be seen on the Westside campus unannounced from time to time.
When his residency at St. Veronica was complete, he took time off and volunteered as an intern at the Human Development Project in the nation of Guatemala. Upon his return to Wisconsin, he was assigned to a parish in Racine, south of Milwaukee. There he introduced the Dominican Sisters of the Siena Center to his ideas of social justice and religious beliefs. One sister, Sr. Brenda Walsh, asked Don who could help initiate a community development project for Racine, and Don introduced her to the ICA. I was contacted and eventually the Dominican Sisters sponsored and hosted an all-day town-meeting that led to a plan of action which the Dominican Sisters funded to revitalize under the banner “Racine 2000”. Don led the “story, song, symbol” workshop. The results of this initiative can be found in the ICA book, “Government Works: Profiles of People Making a Difference”, Chapter 5, under the title “Hope Takes Root” (Racine is the French word for Root).
When his tenure in Racine was complete, Don left the priesthood, moved back to Milwaukee, married his wife “Dee” and got involved in local politics and ran and won a seat on the Milwaukee City Council.
Since seminary Don suffered from a condition resulting from a car accident. He lived with a brace on his leg ever since and was limited in his mobility although could still drive. From time to time, Don would be asked to give a homily in which he recounted this incident. As I recall, he was partially responsible for the automobile accident which occurred just as he was nearing the completion of his studies at Catholic University in Washington, DC and getting ready for the final, big exam which would reveal if he would be anointed into priesthood. Don was unconscious for a day or two. When he came to, it became clear he would miss the final exam and that others were injured in the accident as well, some more serious than him. Don shares in retelling the story that the first thing that came to him when everything was revealed was – “Thank God I don’t have to take the test.”
Don shared that it took some years before he could tell anyone about this, living with the guilt of his first reaction to the accident. He claims that it took his PLC course which includes the section on “Christ” and the studying of Paul Tillich’s sermon, “You Are Accepted”, to relieve him of the guilt he had been carrying that his first thought was not of others, of his graduation and ordination, or his role in injuring others, but of his relief of not having to take the final exam.
His last word in his homily would be, quoting from Tillich, “Simply accept that fact that You Are Accepted.” Thanks, Father Don, for keeping Faith alive for your entire ministry, inside and outside the Church.
~~ Jim Troxel