Tedd F. Richardson

1932 - 2008

EL PASO, Texas - Tedd F. Richardson, 76, of El Paso, Texas, formerly of the North Platte area, who moved to El Paso as a cattle trader and became a prominent businessman, succumbed to cancer Ash Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008.
Born Jan. 20, 1932, in Cheyenne, Wyo., the second of three children to Mildred M. and F. K. Sam Richardson, Tedd was 5 years old when the family moved to North Platte. His education in business started with early on-the-job paren-tal training. His father ran a cattle ranch, raised registered quarter horses and owned several service stations in cen-tral and western Nebraska. Richardson attended Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Mo. Upon graduation in 1950, he returned to Nebraska to work on the family ranch. In 1952, he married Laura Bailey.
They had two daughters, Pamela Raye Stacey and Laurie Jo Gillig of Columbus, Ohio.
Over his long career, Tedd built highways and rail yards, farmed, ranched, traded cattle in Mexico, dealt in used farm equipment and developed residential subdivisions. Most recently, Tedd and his wife, Rosa, purchased distressed homes and lots in El Paso County, rehabilitated them and financed their sale to low-income families who could not otherwise afford a home. Active in civic affairs, Richardson is best remembered for sponsoring and personally funding one of the largest gun buy-back events in the United States that in 1994 took more than 1,400 weapons off the streets of El Paso.
Children of disadvantaged families in El Paso County will remember Senor Tedd's Christmas Party, which pro-vided a holiday treat for thousands each year. In honor of his lifetime of service to the El Paso community, he was awarded the "Conquistador Award," the most prestigious recognition of a citizen of the city, by Mayor John Cook and the El Paso City Council on Jan. 29, 2008.
In the early 1960s while still working on the family ranch in Nebraska, Richardson formed Western Builders Com-pany, a highway/heavy road building company that constructed parts of Interstate 80 through Nebraska. That com-pany was also a prime contractor on the Union Pacific's 2,850-acre Bailey Yard in North Platte. That facility, with 315 miles of track, is the world's largest railroad classification yard.
Richardson sold the construction company in the early 1970s.
When Richardson arrived in El Paso in the late 1960s his interest was Mexican cattle. He had worked with his father on their ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills where they sold cattle to feedlots in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. The family needed a new source of livestock and felt that Mexican cattlemen could fill that demand. Richardson set up an office in the lobby of the Paso del Norte Hotel (now the Camino Real Hotel) where he purchased 100,000 to 150,000 head per year for more than a decade.
In the mid-1970s, he moved his cattle office to a home he built on 50 acres along North Loop Road in the Lower Val-ley. He also set up a small farming operation there raising cotton, chiles and milo-maize, eventually expanding the operation to nearly 70 acres. Richardson's home was located within the city limits of Socorro and he stepped in with financial assistance to that community when it reincorporated in the early 1980s. The town was strapped for operating cash that first year, having not yet collected their first property taxes. Town officials turned to Richardson for a loan to cover initial operating expenses. He also constructed and financed the present Socorro City Hall to the new com-munity.
That Lower Valley farm led Richardson to an interest in land development. In the late 1980s, he saw a strong de-mand for affordable residential lots among Hispanic working families. To accommodate that need, he subdivided a portion of his original farm on North Loop and created the 72-lot Cotton Valley Estates. Cotton Valley had paved streets, half-acre lots, streetlights, telephone service, electricity, garbage pickup, natural gas, mail delivery and police service. However, residents did not have running water or sewer service. This inconvenience led Richardson to join forces with former State Senator, Nick Perez, and help establish the Lower Valley Water District. Now, with water and sewer services available to the Lower Valley, Richardson developed five more subdivisions, Rancho Los Mes-quites, El Campanario, El Presidio, The Tejano and Old Salt Wagon Trail. It was these residential property sales that put Richardson in contact with children from low-income households and which led him in 1980 to initiate Senor Tedd's Christmas Party, an annual luncheon with gifts and entertainment for the children.
In the mid-1990s, after seeing news reports of gunshots fired at a moving car near the Asarco smelter, Richardson tackled the problem of cheap guns on El Paso streets. On the cool morning of April 16, 1994, flanked by representatives of the areas law enforcement services, and with the blessings of a federal judge, he set up a desk on the east porch of Union Depot and paid $50 for every weapon brought to him. He spent $70,000 that day and purchased 1,400 weapons with no questions asked. After serial number checks, the guns were melted and a large commemorative plaque was created from some of the metal. That plaque will be moved from his home and installed at the Union Depot in his memory.
Most recently, Richardson and his wife, Rosa, rehabilitated distressed properties throughout the county for use as low-income housing. He became the county's largest buyer of residential lots at the sheriff's tax foreclosure sales, averaging 30 to 50 purchases per year. Once the homes were renovated, or the lots prepared for construction, Rosa marketed the properties to predominantly Spanish-speaking customers. The Richardsons financed the purchases themselves, so buyers could avoid credit checks at banks and other traditional financial institutions, which can some-times be an impediment to home ownership in the community.
Richardson's familiarity with the community led both city and county officials to trust him with many appoints to a variety of public boards.
He chaired the El Paso Zoning Board of Adjustment, the Building and Standards Commission and the Airport Board of Advisors. He was also vice president of the city's Health Facilities Development Corporation. He chaired the City-County Revolving Loan Fund and served on the City-County Health Board. The county appointed him to the Thomason Hospital Board of Managers and the Sheriff's Service Commission.
Richardson helped write the Code of Ethics for El Paso County, one of the first counties in the state of Texas to have such a code. He was later elected chair of the county's Code of Ethics Committee.
When remembering Tedd, his closest friends will reflect on his love of country, honor and the pursuit of truth. One of his favorite sayings was the motto of the Texas Rangers and reflects the character of this man's man, "No man in the wrong can stand up against a fellow that's in the right and keeps on a-coming."
He is survived by his two daughters; three grandchildren; a brother, Rex; a sister, Kathleen; and a nephew, Tom Richardson, and his wife, Paula. He divorced his first wife in 1979, and then married Rosa M. Sanchez of Parral, Chi-huahua, who also survives him. Funeral services were Monday, Feb. 11, 2008, at St. Raphael Catholic Church in El Paso, with the Rev. Monsignor Francis J. Smith officiating.
Interment will follow at Mount Carmel Cemetery in El Paso.