As James Richardson and Sons continues to grow and expand in Canada’s agriculture industry, it has had to bid farewell to one of the people who helped bring it to this point.
George Taylor Richardson, born in 1924 in Winnipeg and who served as Richardson president for 27 years, died May 14. He officially retired from the company in 2000.
Richardson’s tenure was marked by an expansion of the family’s grain operations with companies such as Pioneer Grain and a major diversification, with big moves into finance with the formation of what would become Richardson Greenshields.
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George was a great-grandson of the founding Richardson patriarch, the James Richardson of the family company’s name.
The Richardson grain industry dynasty began when James, who immigrated to Kingston, Ont., from Ireland in 1823, began accepting bags of grain from clients of his tailoring business.
The family moved to Winnipeg to follow its growing interests in the grain business, and as the Prairies were settled and a giant new grain economy was developed, the Richardson’s companies grew as well.
George took the helm of Richardson when it was already well-established in the grain business, but he helped build it into one of Canada’s dominant grain companies.
He began working summer jobs for the family’s Richardson Terminals in Thunder Bay in 1944 and then joined there full-time in 1946.
Outside of the family’s directly owned companies, George held important positions with many other companies and organizations, including becoming the Hudson Bay Company’s first Canadian-born director in 1972.
