Retired longtime Riverhead resident and teacher, Elizabeth C. Richard, passed away on Wednesday, June 17, 2015 at Eastern Long Island Hospital. She was 83.
Richard was born September 19, 1931 in Staten Island, the daughter of Albert E. and Claire (Connelly) Crabtree. She attended the College of New Rochelle, and later SUNY Stony Brook for her masters.
Spending summers on the North Fork with her family, she met her future husband James F. Richard, a lifelong Riverhead resident.
Upon moving to Riverhead, she taught art in the Riverhead Central School District, teaching studio art, ceramics, and finally photography at the high school. She volunteered with the Riverhead Free Library, as part of its Friends group, the Board of Trustees, and ran the art gallery. In 1972, along with Allene Carey, she founded the East End Arts and Humanities Council from a classroom at Pulaski Street School and was its first executive director. One of her greatest achievements with them was bringing the “ARTRAIN” to the North and South Forks. This was a traveling art exhibit that visited towns on the east end, bringing with it the paintings of de Kooning and Pollack, amongst others.
She is survived by her children Peter of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Anne of Bethesda, Maryland, Robert of Seattle, Washington, and Christine Palmer of Jamesport, along with seven grandchildren. She is predeceased by her husband James, and her daughter, Mary.
A wake is scheduled at Reginald H. Tuthill Funeral Home in Riverhead on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. A funeral will take place on Monday at 9:30 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church in Riverhead.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Elizabeth Richard Memorial Scholarship at East End Arts, 133 East Main St., Riverhead NY 11901
