• Home
• About
• Events
• Programs
• Resources
• Issues and Policy

• Students
• Supporters
• Media
• School Choice Advocates

Helen Richardson

Board Member 1993-2007

Board Member Helen Richardson passed away February 26, 2007, but her legacy as a role model to young women is one that will last for years to come.

Helen was President and CEO of Brewood Engravers, a Washington, DC-based engraving and printing company. Brewood had among its clients the White House, printing fine stationery and invitations for U.S. presidents as far back as Calvin Coolidge.

Helen lived in Washington, DC her entire life, although she was born just over the border in Maryland. She graduated from the Women's College at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her involvement in her family's printing business began after receiving an urgent call from her father requesting her help at Christmastime. She discovered that the preparation of General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Inaugural invitations - all 10,000 of them - was to be her "special project." This was the last set of Inaugural invitations that featured engraved names and hand-addressed envelopes.

In addition to her demanding career and family time, Helen enjoyed dancing, boating, knitting, sewing, and traveling the world, and she was a voracious reader. She was a Founding Member of the National Museum of Women in the Arts and kept very active in local and national affairs.

A beloved and generous friend and advisor to the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, Helen Richardson was one of the Institute's founding supporters. "I got a lovely letter from Michelle Easton and was delighted to become involved," Helen once said. "Thank goodness there's someone who's concerned about us real women! These young women needed some help and I was glad to step in."

Helen was a successful entrepreneur, a dedicated civic activist, and a wonderful friend to America's young women. She will be dearly missed.