Richardson Foundation Pledges $5 Million for Queen’s Stadium Revitalization

Published on: 2014/04/23 - in News

Queen’s University Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Daniel Woolf, announced today that a $5 million pledge has been made toward the revitalization of Richardson stadium.

The donation comes from the Richardson Foundation, the giving arm of James Richardson & Sons, Limited and Affiliated Companies, the same family that the stadium was originally named for.

“The histories of Queen’s, Kingston and the Richardson family are closely intertwined and I am sincerely thankful that the Richardsons have decided to continue that legacy through this remarkable gift,” said Principal Woolf, in a news release. “George Taylor Richardson Memorial Stadium has been a fixture at Queen’s for nearly a century and we are now one step closer to securing its future for the coming decades.”

Alumnus and former chancellor James Armstrong Richardson donated $50,000 in 1920 towards the construction of the original stadium. It was named for his younger brother, George – a Queen’s graduate who was killed in France during the First World War.

Agnes Etherington Art Centre is named for the sister of James and George Richardson, and Benidickson House (the east wing of Summerhill), Benidickson Field and the Agnes Benidickson Tricolour Award are all named for James’s daughter who was the university’s chancellor from 1980-1996.

Today’s news follows on the heels of last month’s announcement that former Gaels football player – and current head football coach at University of Guelph – Stu Lang (Sci ’74) and his wife Kim were donating $10 million toward the stadium’s renovation.

The stadium revitalization project is a $25-million priority within Queen’s $500-million Initiative Campaign.

————————————————————————————-

Photo:  Alex Laney via Wikimedia Commons (cc)