Robert Eaton Richardson was born in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, July 28, 1861. While still a child his parents
moved to Concord, Mass., where he spent his boyhood. At fifteen
he took a position in Pittsburgh, but returned to Concord after three
years and entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After graduating from there in 1885, he accepted a professorship in a
military school in Morgan Park, Ill., where he taught mathematics and
mechanical drawing.
Quitting pedagogy, he resumed engineering,
and went with the Western Electrical Company for five years, and then
formed an engineering company in Chicago with R. H. Pierce. In
1891 Mr. Pierce was made chief engineer of the World's Fair, and Mr.
Richardson was appointed assistant. He laid out the lighting of
the grounds and had charge of the underground work. When his
work was finished, he accepted the position of assistant manager of
the Ansoma Electric Company, of Chicago, and when the World's Fair was
over resumed partnership with Mr. Pierce. The firm is now
Pierce, Richardson & Neiler.
In 1899 Mr. Richardson came to Kansas City to
report upon the Kansas city Electric Light Company for the Armour
interests, and was induced to remain as general manager.
He was married January 9, 1894, to Miss Maude
A. Richardson (no relation).
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