Earl Richardson was born January 31, 1908, in Coffeyville, Kansas. He received a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1930 from Kansas State College and a master's degree in agriculture from Michigan State University in 1951.
He was a reporter for the Manhattan (Kansas) Mercury-Chronicle from 1928 to 1931 and city editor for the Garden City (Kansas) Telegram from 1937 to 1942. Following service in World War II, he became extension editor at Michigan State in 1946 and served there as agricultural editor until his death June 14, 1970, at the age of 62.
In 1959, he was an information officer for the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agriculture Service in Italy, and in 1962, he went to England.
In addition to AAACE, Richardson was a member of Sigma Delta Chi, the East Lansing Kiwanis Club and the East Lansing City Planning Commission. He also served a term as president of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce.