Sister Mary Richards, FSE

Sister Mary Richards grew up in a world familiar with finance. Her father, Henry Richards, was vice president of the Spokane & Eastern Bank in Spokane, Washington. It was there that he met his future wife, Edna. While not pursuing a career in finance, Edna faithfully checked the newspaper every day to see how her stocks were doing, resulting in wise and very lucrative decisions. Sister Mary is the older of Mr. and Mrs. Richards’ two children.

The local race track did business with Mr. Richards’ bank. Sister Mary recalls going to the horse races as a child with her father on Sundays during racing season. The routine included waiting for a call from the race track officials who informed Mr. Richards of the time the armored car would arrive at the bank to pick up the cash needed for the day’s races. Sister Mary accompanied her father as he opened the bank and the vault, and handed the cash over to the armored car personnel. Then father and daughter went to the races. At the finish, they again reversed the route, driving to the bank to allow the secure transfer of the day’s cash in the vault. Little did she know then that her ministry as a religious woman would revolve around finances.

Sister Mary earned an MBA degree from the University of Hartford and has put to practical use the business skills she acquired. She is the finance director of Franciscan Life Center, a state-licensed outpatient mental health facility at the Meriden, Connecticut motherhouse center. She also holds the same role for Franciscan Home Care and Hospice Care which operates out of the Franciscan Life Center campus, and for Franciscan Ever There Care which offers non-medical services such as homemakers, companions, assistive care providers, live-in aides and helpers for persons in their homes. As finance director, Sister Mary oversees a dedicated team of professionals who share the mission of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, to provide services that uphold and foster the dignity of every client. The finance group, as the behind-the-scenes backbone for stability, strives to keep the services running smoothly while facing the sometimes harsh realities of insurance authorizations, client and insurance company late payments, supply delays and budget balancing. Sister Mary’s finance duties also include coordinating the local Franciscan Sisters’ community accounting, and serving on the finance triad for the entire Community.

Sister Mary is not all business, though. She is a baseball and basketball sports fan, and was invited, along with Mother Shaun Vergauwen, FSE, by Coach Jim Calhoun to be his guests at three national championship games when UConn Huskies were vying for the NCAA Championship trophy. Back to her childhood, she enjoyed father-daughter time at the home games of minor league baseball team, the Spokane Indians, thanks to her father’s season tickets.

As food coordinator for the motherhouse center, Sister Mary generously sees that the 30-plus Sisters and the constantly changing number of guests are well-fed. Cooking is a skill she has mastered over the years in the Franciscan Community. She tells the story of not knowing how to boil water, let alone an egg, when she first entered as a young woman. The wonder of transformation that happens in community life never ceases.