Anne Richardson

Ms. Richardson was born Anne Francis Hazard on Dec. 5, 1929, in Providence, R.I., the fourth of five children of a Rhode Island state senator. She graduated magna cum laude from Radcliffe and later served on the Harvard University board of overseers. Ms. Richardson was a founding member of Reading Is Fundamental and served as its chairwoman from 1981 to 1996. By the time she stepped down, the number of children the organization was serving had grown to 3.7 million from 3 million, the volunteer force to 219,000 from about 100,000, and Federal financing to $13.2 million from $7.6 million. In addition to her husband and her son Henry, who lives in Washington, she is survived by two other children, Nancy Carlson of St. George, Vt., and Michael Richardson of Upper Montclair, N.J.; a sister, Mary Conrad of Albuquerque, N.M.; two brothers, T. P. Hazard Jr. of Rockville, Md., and Oliver C. Hazard of Bedford, N.Y., and seven grandchildren.