Macon Magazine

38 maconmagazine.com | August/September 2026 School's football game announcer and also co-hosted a radio show. He has served as the president of the Downtown Macon Rotary Club. Professionally, he was the recipient of a Knight Foundation fellowship at Duke University in 2000. He also attended the University of Maryland's Knight Center as a journalism fellow, and attended Harvard University, where he studied governance. He has also been on the foundation boards of PAGE, the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, which sponsors STAR students. He has served as the master of ceremony of the STAR awards, where most of the students are also musicians. He fi gures that music helps students "connect the dots," because reading music helps to explain math. For this and many other community accomplishments, Richardson is this issue's hero. Did you know? The Georgia Trust for Local News just purchased the Macon Telegraph. Richardson said his original hero was his mother. Another infl uential person was the band director at Thomas Alva Edison High School in Stockton, where he played trombone under the tutelage of Bud Behrens. He introduced me to two things. He drove a Porsche, and he was a session musician and he upped our standards from what we thought we could do, to what we could do. We were the fi rst high school band to play "Carmina Burana" in competition. It's a hideously diffi cult piece, written with many diff erent cle s and time changes. One of the judges was so impressed, he approached Behrens and asked if he could conduct the band. He bowed and thanked us when he fi nished. Richardson graduated from the University of the Pacifi c in California. He remains humble, but is possibly considered a hero by many local people. He was the editorial page director and columnist at The Telegraph for 23 years. Additionally, he was Northeast High author. When he went into DeKalb County Schools, it was a wreck. He fi xed it. When he went into DeKalb County executive, it was a wreck. He fi xed it. And that takes a certain leadership ability that I think exemplifi es that you see something that's broken, and you get it fi xed. Is there anyone on a national level that you think impacts central georgia? Bishop William J.Barber II in North Carolina. He's fought the civil rights fi ght for a long time. To get church folk together, you've got to have some leadership ability. He stayed the course. Leaders don't sign up for terms. They're in it for the long haul, because that arc bends slowly toward justice. Those are the people I admire. I wish I had more of their ability to collaborate. I tend to work independently and simply do my job, but bringing a team together requires an entirely diff erent skill. Richardson stands in front of the old Macon Telegraph building.

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