Town Council loses a calm, quiet voice

By Allison Brophy Champion

Published: June 15, 2008

On her watch, a skate park came to Yowell Meadow Park, the town launched a public bus system and Culpeper got its first community college.

Culpeper Town Councilwoman Emma Richards, a town native, also supported continued revitalization downtown as a member of Culpeper Renaissance and equal rights for all as past president of the local NAACP.

She has been an advocate for the disadvantaged through her work with social services and is a lifelong member of Antioch Baptist Church, the town’s historic African-American congregation.

And for the past eight years, Richards served on Town Council, bringing diversity and gentleness to the governing body.

Tuesday night, Town Council said goodbye to its only female member.

“This is a special day when we want to recognize Emma,” said Mayor Pranas Rimeikis. “Today is her last meeting with us.”

The mayor presented Richards with a plaque at the council meeting, mentioning her “few decades of service” to Culpeper and “exceptional personal commitment.”

“Emma is a woman of few words, but of conviction and principles,” Rimeikis said.

At times, local politics is intense, like a contact sport, he quipped, or a trip on rough waters “with nine of us in a boat ready to capsize.”

But Richards brought a sense of stillness.

“This little voice says some profound word, it calms us down, we put the oars back in the water and get back to work,” Rimeikis said.

Richards, who announced earlier this year that she would not seek a third term because of health reasons, thanked Town Council, town staff and her constituency for their support through the years.

At first, she wasn’t sure she was up for the job.

“But with your encouragement I am glad I chose to do so,” Richards said, mentioning all the new and old friends she met while campaigning. “Sometimes I stayed too long,” she said, laughing, “because sometimes I talked too long.”

Though she brought a different racial and gender background to Town Council, that wasn’t her main focus.

“I knew I would represent my people, but I came to work for all the people,” Richards said.

Former Vice Mayor Bobby Ryan will assume Richards’ seat on Town Council July 1.

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or