Thelma H. Richardson

Thelma H. Richardson, 68, died on March 4, 2011, after a stroke. Thelma Hansen was born in Teaneck, New Jersey in 1943. She graduated from Juniata College in 1965, and married her classmate Jim Richardson in 1966. They moved to Athens later that year, and Thelma began her career at the University of Georgia computer center. She soon became the statistician and computer technologist for the newly-formed Institute of Ecology, where she remained a treasured employee and friend until her death. Thelma guided the Institute and later Odum School of Ecology through the evolution of information technology from the days of punch cards to the era of iPads, with grace, knowledge, kindness, and humor. She offered invaluable assistance and advice to countless faculty, students, and staff, never turning down a request for help; no job was too large or too small for Thelma. She also played a critical role in international sea turtle research and conservation. Thelma was a founder of the Georgia Sea Turtle Cooperative, and for many years a driving force behind the annual Sea Turtle Symposium, an international gathering for sea turtle researchers. Thelma is survived by her husband, undergraduate coordinator and adjunct research professor of ecology Jim Richardson; their daughter Nikki and her husband John Paul Preston; son Jamie and his wife Sarah Richardson; granddaughters Eileen Preston and Emma Grace Richardson; and brothers Frederick and Ronald Hansen. Tributes from her Ecology colleagues and friends are collected at www.ecology.uga.edu. A celebration of Thelma's life will be held later in the year.