Peter Richards
By Douglas Towne
Peter Richards, 80, recently passed away at his home in Maine. He was described in his obituary as a “lifelong, beloved teacher, an enthusiastic prankster, and a creative, generous soul who counted ‘prospecting for gold in Greenland’ and ‘playing banjo for an X-rated movie soundtrack’ among his favorite odd achievements.”
“I knew Peter from the very start of the SCA in 1977; he was an enthusiastic supporter and involved in all the early meetings,” recalls Arthur Krim, another of the SCA’s founders. “I believe he tried to preserve the signage in Boston’s Combat Zone.” This was an adult entertainment district, full of salacious street advertisements along Washington Street in downtown, which has since been redeveloped.
Chester Liebs, the SCA’s founder, said he had not seen Peter for a very long time. “However, I remember him from the organization’s early years as talented, ever positive, kind, and highly effective.”
The obituary noted that Peter believed everyday objects have fascinating stories, a belief he demonstrated by collecting sand from around the world, airline barf bags, air fresheners, and McDonald’s placemats. “His passion for roadside artifacts and stories — diners, gas stations, fast-food emporia, and signage — led him to become a founding member of the SCA.”
“Unsurprisingly, Peter Richards and I bonded over diners in the early 1970s when we were both living in the Boston area,” Richard Gutman says. “We collaborated on a feature article in 1974 for the Sunday New York Times Travel Section: ‘A Guide to Dining Out . . . Way Out’, which put a spotlight on 10 of our favorite diners.”
Gutman adds that he participated in one of Peter’s classroom projects that measured the speed of spring’s advance along the U.S. Eastern seaboard. “The class sent postcards to postmasters within five miles of Route 1 from Florida to Maine, requesting a return postcard indicating the date of the first daffodil bloom. The class used the results to determine that the arrival of spring averaged 50 miles per day—about what a person could walk.”
SCA founders at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1988; Peter Richards, Mike Jackson, Dan Scully, and Arthur Krim (top row, l-r); Doug Yorke, Millie O’Connell, and Chester Liebs (bottom row, l-r). Dick Gutman is visible inside Lamy’s Diner above Mike Jackson.
He then zeroed in on one of Peter’s strengths as an educator. “It was his ability to open people’s eyes to the commonplace, whether roadside architecture or the significance of blooming daffodils.”
Larry Cultrera recalls meeting Peter at the SCA’s landmark Detroit conference at the Henry Ford Museum in 1988. Their only other encounter was a serendipitous event at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 2003. “I was wearing my Agawam Diner t-shirt and a guy, with a young child, walks up to me and says, ‘The Agawam Diner is my favorite diner!’ I looked at him and said, well of course, you are Peter Ames Richards!” Cultrera adds that Peter was one of the nicest people he ever met.
In Peter’s final months, he gave the SCA one last gift, reaching out for help finding good homes for his collectibles and an amazing archive of commercial archaeology slides. SCA board member Frank Brusca volunteered to catalog the collection, which is now available here.
View The Peter Richards Roadside Collection.
The obituary concluded by saying, “Peter will be deeply missed by his wife of 45 years, Kelly Frick Richards; his children, Maisie, Kennesaw, and Austin…and all the lucky kids who followed him like the Pied Piper into the adventures of learning.”
To read the rest of this article, members are invited to log in. Not a member? We invite you to join. This article originally appeared in SCA Road Notes, Spring 2026, Vol. 34, No. 1. SCA Road Notes, informally known as SCA News, is a quarterly publication and a member benefit of the Society for Commercial Archeology. Back issues are available for download.
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