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Member Profile


Dorothy and Doug Richards


Dorothy and Doug have been married for 53 years and have four children, Betty, Doug, Cindy, and Val; and ten grandchildren—S boys and 5 girls with ages ranging from 13 to 25 years old. Three grandchildren have graduated from college, three are in college and the last four are still in junior and senior high school. Their four children graduated from college (three from Hamline and one from Gustavus and went into various professions; Two are teachers, one a nurse and one an attorney/judge.

Dorothy graduated from the University of Nebraska with a food and nutrition major and was a dietitian in the Fairmont Hospital and several nursing homes. She has volunteered as a den mother and a Brownie leader. She has served as president of the Hospital auxiliary, the Lakeview Methodist Home auxiliary, and the local United Methodist Women. She has volunteered in the hospital coffee shop for many years. Dorothy served as Worthy Matron of the Order of the Eastern Star and Doug as Worthy Patron.

Doug graduated from the University of Minnesota, Mankato, with degrees in elementary education and general administration. He taught fifth and sixth grades for seven years, was an elementary and middle school principal for 28 years. He was a scoutmaster for five years and served an additional five years on the District Scout Council. During that time he attended the Scoutmasters’ training in Philmont, New Mexico, took a group of scouts on the Wilderness Canoe trails and was scoutmaster for a troop of scouts from southern Minnesota at the 1969 Jamboree at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Doug is a Mason and worked with his daughters in the Job Daughters organization. He has been an active member of the Exchange Club of Fairinont since 1971, having served as president. He has been the club secretary since 1988. He was president of the Minnesota District in 1985-86.

Doug started woodcarving in 1988, after seeing a carving display by Jim Morris at the Martin County Fair. The Ceylon Club started that September and he has been carving ever since. Doug has taught beginning carving to upper elementary students and to adults through the community education program. This past year he taught beginning carving during the Waldorf Weekend. He has been president of the Ceylon Woodcarvers and the Blue Earth Royal Chiselers Woodcarvers. He likes to carve characters and gets most of his ideas from books and magazines. He likes to golf during the summer and watch athletic events on TV.

Dorothy started woodcarving at an Elde~-hostel at John Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina. It was their first Elderhostel and she didn’t know how the classes would be conducted, so she took woodcarving. Their instructor was Roy Hellman of Miami, Florida. She carved a shore bird and a Santa. Doug carved a cowboy and a Canada goose. She continued carving at the club meetings in Blue Earth and Ceylon, as well as additional Elderhostel programs and carving weekends at Waldorf College, Iowa and Wahpeton, North Dakota.

Since retirement in 1986, they have taken 45 Elderhostel programs throughout the country, studying various topics. The woodcarving experiences have been in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, with Gloria Lopez Cordova (Mexican carving); Sawmill Center for the Arts in Cook Forest State Park, Pennsylvania, with Carl Sinkala (birds); John Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, North Carolina, with Roy Hellman (characters); Helen Gibson (manger set animals); Red Rainey (all three media); and Tom Wolf (Santas). They also attended several programs at the Allison Wells program in Canton, Mississippi—George Berry (animals and birds); Terry Phillips (hound dogs); and Charles Thomas (walking sticks). They attended an Elderhostal program at Maplelog, Callaway, Minnesota, on Little Sugar Bush Lake. The classes there were Norwegian Heritage and Norwegian woodcarving that they took from Monte Draper and Charles McCulip, from Bemidji. Classes have also been taken with local woodcarvers including Mary Kaisersatt, Harley Scbmitgen, and Bruce Ankeny.

The Elderhostal programs have been their way of spending some wintertime in the south and enjoying the seasons of Minnesota. With all four children living in Minnesota they have enjoyed following the grandchildren’s activities, so they don’t really like to leave the area for any length of time. With activities that they have, they have enjoyed an early retirement so they can continue to add a few more into their schedule.



Fran Courteau    Bill Fillis    Ken Gorrell    Gen Jansen    Midge Johnson    Elmer Knudsen    Farland & Morris   
Jim Morris    Dorothy & Doug Richards    Ken Rusch    Roger Stough    Ron White


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