Editor’s Note: Western North Carolina is rich with untold stories—many resting quietly in local cemeteries. In this Tombstone Tales series, we explore the lives of people from our region’s past whose legacies, whether widely known or nearly forgotten, helped shape the place we call home.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Some stories are carved in stone. Others live on in classrooms, museums, and quiet corners of the world changed by one woman’s passion for people, culture, and education. Irene Dillingham Richards left behind both kinds of legacy.

Born Aug. 21, 1924, in the mountain community of Dillingham, North Carolina, Irene was a sixth-generation descendant of Absalom and Rebecca Dillingham, founders of the tight-knit settlement that bears their name. In 1927, when she was just three years old, the pastor of the family church told her parents, “Your little Irene is sharp as a tack.” The nickname “Tack” stuck and followed her throughout a life marked by intellect, curiosity, and compassion.

She graduated high school at 16 and earned a scholarship to study engineering at NC State University during World War II. Later, she pursued a master’s degree at UNC-Chapel Hill and continued her education at institutions across the world.

Irene was a teacher at heart. One of her most impactful roles came as the founding teaching principal of the Thoms Orthopedic School in Asheville, where she worked with children recovering from polio.

After the war, Irene’s career turned international. She joined the Department of Defense Schools in Frankfurt, Germany, and later took on administrative roles in London and Paris. In 1956, she was part of a rare U.S.-Soviet educational exchange, visiting schools behind the Iron Curtain during a brief diplomatic thaw.

While working at R.A.F. Alconbury in England, she met fellow educator Kenneth Richards. They married in Lausanne, Switzerland, and together published the award-winning international education magazine Education World. While in London, Irene also worked briefly as a showroom model and became the muse of American artist Francis Kelly. One of his portraits of her is now owned by the King of Sweden.

Despite her global career, Irene returned to Asheville with a commitment to her hometown’s future. She and her husband purchased the Old Asheville Art Museum in Montford and eventually donated it back to the community. The couple played a quiet but powerful role in revitalizing Montford and downtown Asheville before it became the arts and culture hub it is today.

 In 1994, she was named a Distinguished Woman of North Carolina, and she and Kenneth received the Lois Cook United Nations Peace Award for their civic and cultural contributions.

In her later years, she focused on environmental causes, including the preservation of the Big Ivy forest near her childhood home.

Irene Dillingham Richards died on May 2, 2022. She was laid to rest at Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, not far from the hills where her story began.

Irene’s work touched thousands, and her legacy lives on in every classroom, gallery, and garden that bears the mark of her passion.

Even after the last page is turned, some stories stay with us. Irene’s life is one of them, rooted in the people, places, and purpose she held dear.

Visit Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina 

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