Oberlin Heritage Center Staff
Prue Richards
Collections Assistant
Prue
was born in Oberlin, attended the Oberlin Public Schools, and got her
B.A. in English at Oberlin College. Some years later, with two of her
three boys still in diapers, she went back to school and finished her
teaching degree--the last Oberlin College gave (in 1977) until the new
program now beginning.. After 20 years in public education, 15 of them
at Oberlin High School, and with all the boys raised and out the door,
she left the classroom to indulge her passions of sewing, gardening, singing,
and homemaking. Sewing led her to the Oberlin Heritage Center Sewing Guild
and making reproduction costumes for the Living History program, which
she then joined as an interpreter. In 2000 Prue was hired as the Collections
Assistant (assisting the collections, not collecting money!) and has now
spent six very happy years learning about and working on all aspects of
collections care and management. It is indeed a very happy second career
for a detail-oriented neat freak who has no fear of moving furniture herself
to get it where she wants it, and who loves always to be learning something
new and meeting new challenges.