Diane Richardson

Diane Elaine Simons Richardson

(May 15, 1946 - October 4, 2024)

Diane Richardson died peacefully at home on Friday, October 4.

Diane was loving, brilliant, funny, clever, and utterly honorable. She spent most of her working life as a librarian and archivist at hospitals and medical institutions including The New York Academy of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine Libraries in New York, concluding with years as an archivist at Cornell’s specialist Oskar Diethelm Library and after retirement, at the University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries.

She loved genealogy and for decades was voracious in identifying forebears. Her interest in ancestors was paired with a deep and informed fascination with history. Diane enjoyed gardening and bird-watching and showed kindness and affection for animals, especially black labs and her two cats, Simon and Lacey.

She is survived by her husband, Keith E Spurgeon, her sister Barbara Smith, her brother Dick Simons, and extended family.