Richards excited and humbled to serve as grand marshal

Date: 6/22/2009

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



EAST LONGMEADOW "I was planning on sitting in the back of the auditorium, and I was going to wear jeans and a fleece vest, you know, low key. Just disappear into the crowd," Marilyn Richards said of her thoughts before the Annual Town Meeting on May 18. "[My husband] Norman said, 'Maybe you ought to put something nicer on. You never know when the spirit [to get up and speak] will hit you.'"

Norman Richards had an ulterior motive in influencing his wife's wardrobe, however. He knew that that evening she would named the grand marshal for the Fourth of July Parade.

"I was listening to the list of accomplishments and I sat there wondering, 'Who could that be?'" Richards recalled. "When I figured out it was me, my heart started to pound."

Her accomplishments are numerous. Richards worked for years as a pediatric cardiology nurse clinician at Baystate Medical Center before officially retiring in November 2006. She still works per diem in pediatrics.

In 1980, she began her journey as a public servant of East Longmeadow with an appointment to the Council on Aging Advisory Board. By 1988, she was the first woman elected to the town's Board of Selectmen. This board was the first to initiate regional Board of Selectmen meetings.

She noted that under the board of herself, Steve Manning and Larry Levine, East Longmeadow was the first local town to institute a mandatory recycling program.

Richards served a total of nine years on the Board of Selectmen and chose not to seek reelection after her near-decade of service so she'd have more time to care for her mother.

When current Selectman Jim Driscoll resigned from his position on the Planning Board in October 1997, Richards was approached by the Board of Selectmen and the Planning Board to fill the last year of his term.

Her first position on the Planning Board was as clerk, which allowed her to get a clear overview of all the issues that came before the board. Soon after joining the Planning Board, she was elected chair. She served on the Planning Board through 2008.

And, in addition to her service to the town, she volunteers at her church.

"I have a love of people," she said in a previous interview with Reminder Publications. "That's why I do what I do."

Richards is being honored for her dedication to the town by being named the grand marshal of the 2009 parade. "It is exciting, but humbling to talk about the whole thing," she said. "There are so many in town who work so hard to make this a great community."

Carl Ohlin, chair of the Parade Committee, said that the naming of grand marshals began 12 years ago, with the committee naming the first two marshals. After that, past marshals began to serve on a selection committee to select the new ones.

"There are several categories [we judge candidates on] and Marilyn fit in with her long time service to the community and her church, her youth work through her profession, helping out at the senior center and she keeps doing that," Ohlin said. "Her manner, her style and the fact that she's always looking out for what's best for the whole town [made her our choice]."

Richards said the biggest difference for her this year, as grand marshal, is that she will be riding in the parade instead of marching in it.

"The parade is only the beginning," Richards said of the Fourth of July weekend. "It's important for the town. It's one event that pulls in an entire community. It's a town-wide opportunity to have fun together."