Plaque Project: The Honorable William B. Richardson ’66

            Mr. William B. Richardson ’66 left his plaque at Middlesex representing a pitcher in front of a map of Mexico, right in the first floor of Eliot Hall. Bill believes that his plaque is reflective and consistent with whom he was at his time at MX. As a baseball pitcher, even in the Middlesex Athletic Hall of Fame, carving a pitcher seemed only natural. Also, Bill was half-Mexican, raised in Mexico, and returned to Mexico for vacations, so another large part of his identity was where he came from. The pitcher depicted is even based off of a photograph of himself taken by another Middlesex student at the time while he was pitching for Middlesex, embodying his identity as the “Mexican baseball player.”

            Even though Bill’s future is different from the one he imagined himself to have as a senior, the plaque holds the same meaning to him as an adult now. He originally wanted to be a Major League Baseball pitcher, and was even scouted for a team, but ultimately went into politics and became the governor of New Mexico, as well as an Ambassador to the United Nations. However, Bill does not have any regrets in regards to his plaque, because he believes that a plaque should represent whom one is at that time in his life. Bill’s experience carving his plaque was an interesting one, because he was one of the last ones to finish in his class of 1966. In fact, amidst the notorious Senior Spring, especially as a baseball player, Bill was so strained for time that his friends David Gentner and Ralph Cygon helped him carve his plaque along with their own. Overall, Bill feels great about his plaque, especially its location and content, and would change nothing about his experiences of creating it.

-Written by Christina MX ’16