Ear­ly life and aca­d­e­m­ic foun­da­tion

Born on De­cem­ber 1, 1931, in San Fer­nan­do, Pro­fes­sor George Maxwell Richards, TC, CMT, PhD, was one of five chil­dren born to George, a bar­ris­ter, and Hen­ri­et­ta Mar­tin, a teacher. He re­ceived his ear­ly ed­u­ca­tion at the San Fer­nan­do EC School be­fore earn­ing a Gov­ern­ment Ex­hi­bi­tion schol­ar­ship to Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege in Port of Spain.

Re­cip­i­ent of a Unit­ed British Oil­fields of Trinidad Ltd (UBOT) schol­ar­ship to pur­sue high­er ed­u­ca­tion abroad, Richards earned his bach­e­lor’s (1955) and mas­ter’s (1957) de­grees in chem­i­cal en­gi­neer­ing from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­ches­ter, fol­lowed by a PhD from Pem­broke Col­lege, Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge, in 1963.

In­dus­tri­al and high­er ed­u­ca­tion lead­er­ship

Richards be­gan his ca­reer in the pe­tro­le­um sec­tor as a staff trainee at UBOT in Point Fortin from May 1950 to Sep­tem­ber 1951. Fol­low­ing his uni­ver­si­ty stud­ies, he held sev­er­al man­age­r­i­al roles at Shell Trinidad Ltd. (for­mer­ly UBOT) be­tween 1957 and 1965.

In 1965, he tran­si­tioned in­to acad­e­mia, join­ing the St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) as a Se­nior Lec­tur­er in Chem­i­cal En­gi­neer­ing. He was ap­point­ed Pro­fes­sor of Chem­i­cal En­gi­neer­ing in Oc­to­ber 1970 and sub­se­quent­ly served as Head of the De­part­ment of Chem­i­cal En­gi­neer­ing and Dean of the Fac­ul­ty of En­gi­neer­ing. Ris­ing through the in­sti­tu­tion­al ranks, he served as Deputy Prin­ci­pal and Pro-Vice Chan­cel­lor (1980–1985), Act­ing Prin­ci­pal (1984–1985), and Prin­ci­pal and Pro-Vice Chan­cel­lor from May 1985 un­til No­vem­ber 1996.

Dur­ing his UWI lead­er­ship, Pro­fes­sor Richards was in­stru­men­tal in build­ing an in­ter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized Fac­ul­ty of En­gi­neer­ing and spear­head­ed the es­tab­lish­ment of the UWI In­sti­tute of Busi­ness (UWI-IOB), now the Arthur Lok Jack Glob­al School of Busi­ness. He was lat­er named Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus in Chem­i­cal En­gi­neer­ing at UWI.

Pub­lic ad­min­is­tra­tion and

cor­po­rate ser­vice

Be­yond acad­e­mia, Pro­fes­sor Richards lent his ex­per­tise to both pub­lic sec­tor gov­er­nance and cor­po­rate man­age­ment. He served on the boards of ma­jor na­tion­al en­ter­pris­es, in­clud­ing the Trinidad Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Oil Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (TRIN­TOC), and the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed (NGC).

His pub­lic ser­vice lead­er­ship in­clud­ed chair­ing the Na­tion­al Train­ing Board and the In­sti­tute of Ma­rine Af­fairs (IMA), along­side ser­vice on the Na­tion­al Ad­vi­so­ry Coun­cil, the Salaries Re­view Com­mis­sion, and the UWI-IOB board. A dis­tin­guished en­gi­neer, he main­tained mem­ber­ships in pro­fes­sion­al bod­ies in­clud­ing the As­so­ci­a­tion of Pro­fes­sion­al En­gi­neers of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the In­sti­tute of Chem­i­cal En­gi­neers (Lon­don), the In­sti­tute of Pe­tro­le­um (Lon­don), and the Roy­al So­ci­ety of Chem­istry (Lon­don).

The Pres­i­den­cy (2003–2013)

On March 17, 2003, Pro­fes­sor Richards was sworn in as the 4th Pres­i­dent of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go, be­com­ing the first non-at­tor­ney to hold the na­tion’s high­est of­fice. Re-elect­ed for a sec­ond con­sec­u­tive term in 2008, he demit­ted of­fice on March 17, 2013.

Dur­ing his decade in of­fice, Pres­i­dent Richards spoke out on na­tion­al is­sues such as pub­lic safe­ty and crime while ad­vo­cat­ing for the con­sti­tu­tion­al in­de­pen­dence of Par­lia­ment and the Ser­vice Com­mis­sions.

As Pa­tron of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Olympic Com­mit­tee and the Com­mon­wealth Games As­so­ci­a­tion, he was a vis­i­ble sup­port­er of na­tion­al ath­letes. Con­cur­rent with his pres­i­den­cy, he served as the found­ing Chan­cel­lor of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (UTT) from 2005 to 2013.

Ho­n­ours and recog­ni­tion

Over his ca­reer, Pro­fes­sor Richards re­ceived na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al ac­co­lades:

Na­tion­al Awards: Cha­co­nia Medal (Gold) for Pub­lic Ser­vice (1977) and the Trin­i­ty Cross (2003).

Hon­orary Doc­tor­ates & Fel­low­ships: Cer­tifi­cate of Hon­orary Fel­low­ship from the In­sti­tu­tion of Chem­i­cal En­gi­neers (UK, 2003); Hon­orary Fel­low­ship at Pem­broke Col­lege, Cam­bridge (2004); Doc­tor of Let­ters (DLitt) from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Sheffield (2005); Hon­orary Doc­tor of Let­ters from UWI (2006); and an Hon­orary Doc­tor­ate from Heri­ot-Watt Uni­ver­si­ty (2007).

Oth­er Awards: UMIST Alum­nus of the Year (2003) and the Cit­i­zens for a Bet­ter Trinidad and To­ba­go Re­pub­lic Day Award (2003).

Per­son­al life and lega­cy

Af­fec­tion­ate­ly known to the pub­lic as “Max,” Pro­fes­sor Richards was a promi­nent fig­ure in na­tion­al cul­ture and an avid Car­ni­val mas­quer­ad­er, wide­ly known for host­ing his an­nu­al all-in­clu­sive fete, Friends to the Max.

He was mar­ried to Dr Jean Ramjohn-Richards, and to­geth­er they had two chil­dren, Mark and Max­ine.

Pro­fes­sor Richards passed away on Jan­u­ary 8, 2018, at the age of 86.