Eleanor Dickie was born on December 18, 1944. She received a B.S. from Cornell in Home Economics in 1945. She lived and worked in Hawaii as a 4-H home extension agent in Hawaii for several years, returning to school to obtain a master's degree in social work from Columbia University. She worked for the Girl Scouts of America and for the Presbyterian Senior Services in New York City. In 1963 she married Robert D. Richardson and moved to LaPorte/Michigan City area where she served as a 4th grade teacher and then as Executive Director of the Northern Indiana Girl Scout Council until 1968, when she became Executive Director of Planned Parenthood in South Bend. Later she helped run the Richardson family business, Thermco Instrument Corporation in LaPorte, IN. She died on September 10, 1994.