Charles S. Richardson

Charles Sumner Richardson (c. 1854 or 1855 – 1904) was the first president of South Dakota's normal school, Madison Normal, that later became Dakota State University.[1][2]

Richardson was born to Issac E. and Susan M. B. Richardson about 1854[3] in Hartford, Maine,[4] where he grew up.[5] He attended the nearby Colby College in Waterville, Maine where he graduated in 1883;[1][5] whereupon he took the job of organizing the newly created Madison Normal School in South Dakota. He was president of the school from 1883 to 1887.[1] In 1884 he married Edith May Adams.[4] Richardson was succeeded as president by William F. Gorrie of Watertown, South Dakota, who assumed office in September 1887.[6]

After leaving Madison, Richardson took graduate course work at Harvard in chemistry and mineralogy, followed by accepting appointment at Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan where he briefly was a professor of mathematics and physics.[7] In 1891 he moved to Salt Lake City due to his interest in mining. He became involved with a number of mines in the Bingham Canyon mining district, notably the Old Jordan and South Galena mines.[7] In 1895, he moved to Anaconda, Montana where with a Mr. Olson, Richardson together with his brother-in-law, Charles Francis Adams,[8] ran a merchantile, supplying clothes and other dry goods to the miners. In 1899, he and his brother-in-law returned to Salt Lake City and opened the firm of Richardson & Adams. Richardson & Adams primarily ran an upscale clothing store (clothier) in downtown Salt Lake City,[7][9] but it still also held a number of mining claims.[10]

The Richardson Hall dorm at Dakota State was named after him in 1970.[11] He died on June 24, 1904, in Omaha, Nebraska,[11][7] and was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery, in Salt Lake City, Utah.[12]