William H. Richardson, 91, longtime financial adviser, Buffalo Raceway board president (2024)

William H. “Bill” Richardson, a leading local investment adviser and longtime president of the board of directors of Buffalo Raceway, died June 26 in Fox Run, Orchard Park, after a brief illness. He was 91.

Born in Lackawanna, the second of three boys and a lifelong Hamburg resident, William Henry Richardson was the son of Roy W. and Helen Niehus Richardson. His father was an insurance adjuster.

He was a 1951 graduate of Hamburg High School, where he played football, was a member of the track team and served for two years on the Student Council.

At St. Lawrence University, he was quarterback on the football team and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1956. The following year, he married another St. Lawrence student, Marie V. Rossi, whose brother-in-law was the football coach.

Mr. Richardson served for two years in the Army, was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., as a specialist fourth class, and then served in the Army Reserve.

In 1958, he joined the investment firm Trubee Collins and Co., now Trubee Wealth Advisors, which at the time was the only Buffalo-based company with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.

He became a general partner in 1961 and completed a course in the Institute of Investment Banking at the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania. He became managing partner upon the death of Frank C. Trubee Jr. in 1974 and maintained the firm’s focus on basic investments in stocks and bonds.

“We’ve always been in the same kind of business,” he told Buffalo News business reporter David Robinson in 1991. He pointed out that Trubee Collins hadn’t had a losing month for more than 25 years.

He became president and chief executive officer when the firm incorporated in 1992 and retired in 2021.

“He was a super boss,” his longtime colleague Jeff Bowen said. “He ran a great office.”

Mr. Richardson was a member of the board of governors of the National Association of Securities Dealers from 1992 to 1994 and previously served a term on the NASD District 13 Committee.

He was a former board member of First Federal Savings and Loan of Hamburg, the Prospect Lawn Cemetery Association, the Bond Club of Buffalo and the Better Business Bureau of Western New York.

His love of horse racing began with his father, who had been a paddock judge and presiding judge at Buffalo Raceway. Mr. Richardson owned several horses and drove them in more than a dozen races over the years at county fairs.

He became president of the board of directors at Buffalo Raceway in 1990 and continued to serve until his death. The fifth race Saturday evening at Buffalo Raceway will be designated as the Bill Richardson Trot in his memory.

“He was special for a lot of reasons,” Jim Mango, Buffalo Raceway’s chief operating officer and general manager, said. “He treated everyone well and helped us through a time that was pretty difficult. You could always call him.”

He owned a number of horses through the years and, in 2016, was one of the owners of Tight Lines, a trotter that competed in the $1 million Hambletonian at Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J.

“I’ve never been to a Hambletonian before and I am thrilled to death to be going this year,” he told an interviewer. “I’ve been involved in racing for more than 45 years and this is the highlight.”

A lifelong sportsman, he also enjoyed fishing and hunting. He was a member of Springville Country Club, the Red Jacket Ski Club, the Willow Bend Tennis and Swim Club and the Hamburg Indoor Tennis Association. He and his wife traveled to Colorado to ski and visited Europe and Africa.

His wife, a teacher, went on to become a Hamburg School Board member, minority leader of the Erie County Legislature and deputy Erie County executive under Edward J. Rutkowski from 1984 to 1987. She died in 2004.

Survivors include two sons, David, a retired senior vice president at M&T Bank, and Paul, a scientist and businessman; his partner, Patricia Williams; and two grandsons.

Services were private.