2023 Father of The Year Nominees
Thank you for showing the world that black men are present and active in our communities. 

Eugene S. Richards Sr. was a tenacious, persevering and hardworking young man. With the aid of the GI Bill and while working in the US Post office, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering in September 1948.  Unable to secure a civil engineering position in Pittsburgh due to racial attitudes, Eugene applied to and was hired by the Buffalo District of the Army Corps of Engineers in the Fall of 1948. 

In 1973, "Eugene S. Richards, Engineer and Land Surveyor" was formed, located at 1325 N. Forest Road in Amherst, NY. It was the first and only African-American Civil Engineering firm in Western New York and one of the few in the country. 

Richards is responsible for designing the elegant Samuel's Grande Manor Banquet Facility at 8750 Main Street in Clarence, NY, major survey work for all seven Buffalo Metro Rail stations prior to the construction of the tunnel of the light rail system, a series of dams which "stopped" the water flow over the American side of Niagara Falls to a mere trickle. This was done to allow for a study of the rock formations at the crest of the Falls and the riverbed; also, to mechanically bolt and strengthen a number of faults to delay the gradual erosion of the American Falls and numerous other projects.

As a life member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated his love for education and youth had him establish the Eugene S Richards Scholarship Fund in his name  to continue providing opportunity and educational equity for African American High school students in the city of Buffalo.