An electrical engineer with the Toledo Railways & Light Company (TR&L), Richards was tapped by Cities Service Company (owner of the TR&L and later to become CITGO) to help design the floodlight illumination of the Statue of Liberty in 1916.

.

Richards worked with a fellow Cities Services electrical superintendent, and engineers from General Electric and National Lamp Works to design the lighting system. He and his colleagues received a specially struck key fob from New York City Mayor John Purroy Mitchel on December 2, 1916.

​