Katie Richards Obituary

Katie Richards attended Hellgate High School in Missoula, MT. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about Katie Richards.

Graduation Year	Class of 1980
Date of Passing	(unknown)
About	From "The Missoulian" Katherine Ruth "Katie" Richards, a gifted artist and journalist and principled social activist - and a former Missoula resident - died May 23, 2024 at her home in Olney, Maryland, from complications related to her long-term fight against cancer. She was 61. Katie was born on July 25, 1962, in Hinsdale, Illinois, to Ruth Lorraine Richards and S. Allen Richards. She spent her earliest years in Elmhurst, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago. In 1973, two years after Katie's father died, Ruth moved the family to Missoula, Montana. Katie considered Missoula, and Montana, "home" for the rest of her life. Katie graduated from Hellgate High School in 1980, from the University of Montana in 1984, and as a Rhodes Scholar she attended the University of Oxford, where she earned a degree in politics and philosophy and a graduate diploma in theology. In 1992 she completed a Master of Arts degree in journalism at the University of Maryland in College Park. She met John Roome while studying at Oxford, and the two were married in Oxford in December 1987. Roome took a job with the World Bank out of Washington, D.C., moving the family to Olney, Maryland, where the couple raised two sons and a daughter and were part of the Sandy Spring Friends Quaker community. From 1992 to 1995, Katie was a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, working mostly out of the newspaper's suburban Maryland bureaus. Though she usually reported on local governments, she also wrote a well-received series of stories about a wayward manatee that needed human help to return to its Florida home from Maryland, and about the efforts of the Washington Redskins to build a new stadium in Maryland. More recently, she became an active volunteer with the Maryland chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Katie was also an accomplished artist in multiple media and completed the Master Artist Program at Compass Atelier in Rockville, Maryland, showing her paintings at galleries in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Missoula (Dana Gallery) and Washington state. Her paintings were part of many juried shows, winning multiple awards. She loved the outdoors and national parks, which she visited often and captured in her artwork. Glacier National Park in Montana and Kruger National Park in South Africa were especially beloved. She also deeply loved her family and friends, who were spread all over the U.S. and abroad. She stayed in touch with people she met at every stage in life. Katie is survived by her husband, John Roome of Olney, Maryland; sons: Sean Roome of Portland, Oregon, and Matthew Roome, of Eugene, Oregon; daughter, Julia Roome of Canyonlands, Utah; brother, Sam Richards of Martinez, California; sister, Judith Leigh Richards of Superior, Montana; and several in-laws, nieces, nephews and cousins. She was preceded in death by brother, Robert Richards.