Smith Richardson Foundation

Current leaders of the foundation include Peter L. Richardson, the trustee chairman and president of the foundation; Dr. Marin J. Strmecki, senior vice president; Robert L. Coble, vice president and chief financial officer; Ross F. Hemphill, treasurer; Dr. Arvid R. Nelson, secretary; and Diana B. Wasburn, assistant secretary. Other board members include W. Winburne King III, Adele Richardson Ray, Lunsford Richardson Jr., Stuart S. Richardson, and E. William Stetson. (4)

Members of its board of governors include Zbigniew Brzezinski (President Carter’s National Security Adviser), Jane B. Preyer, Christopher DeMuth (the president of the American Enterprise Institute), Adele Richardson Ray, Stephen Goldsmith, Lunsford Richardson Jr., Samuel Huntington, Peter L. Richardson, Fred C. Ikle, Stuart S. Richardson, Roderick MacFarquhar, John B. Shoven, Gen. Edward C. Meyer (Ret.), E. William Stetson, Arvid R. Nelson, Ben Wattenberg, June E. O’Neill, and Dr. Edward F. Zigler. (5)

Since its founding, SRF has been led by members of the Richardson family, whose various drug companies have created a number of well known products, including Clearasil, Nyquil, and Oil of Olay cream. H. Smith Richardson ran the foundation until 1972, when his son, H. Smith Richardson Jr., took it over. Upon Junior’s death in 1999, his son, Peter, took over the helm. Peter’s siblings, Stuart and Adele, both serve on the board of trustees and governors. (6)

Origins and History

The Smith Richardson Foundation—together with the Olin and Scaifefoundations—was a key supporter of the American Enterprise Institute when AEI emerged as a central player during Ronald Reagan’s first term as president. An early funder of the neoconservative movement, Smith Richardson also helped foster the work of people like Midge Decter, Norman Podhoretz, and Irving Kristol by supporting the various institutions they were associated with, including The Public Interest, Commentary, and the Committee on the Present Danger. (7) (8) (9)

Leslie Lenkowsky, SRF’s director of research when Reagan assumed office, once told the New York Times, “We don’t create ideas, we nurture them, a bit like fertilizer. … If the sprout is there, we make it grow into a mighty oak.” In particular, Lenkowsky thought that Podhoretz’s and Kristol’s ideas would “have a long-term impact” on how people thought about public affairs. (8)

Building on this support, Kristol helped convince SRF to back Jude Wanniski’s research on supply side economics. Wanniski’s influential book on the subject went on to serve as a guide for Ronald Reagan’s economic policies when Jack Kemp, convinced of the theory’s merits by Kristol, brought it to the attention of the president. (10) (11)

Lenkowsky also oversaw SRF’s efforts to fund college newspapers, including The Dartmouth Review, where a young Dinesh D’Souza got his start. As editor-in-chief, D’Souza used the newspaper to out homosexual students by investigating subscribers, including their parents. Apparently stolen files from the university’s Gay Student Alliance appeared in the paper, some of which contained “names and parts of letters written by lonely students.” D’Souza went on to be a key crusader against the so-called liberal bias in universities, beginning with his book Illiberal Democracy. SRF joined with other conservative foundations to fund much of this work. (12) (26)

Also during Lenkowsky’s watch, the foundation supported the religious right’s efforts to take the lead in the democracy movement, funding groups like Freedom House and the Institute on Religion and Democracy. Key members of these organizations have included Richard John Neuhaus, Michael Novak, and Ed Robb. (13)

Ann Devon Gaffney Cross became SRF’s director of research some time after Lenkowsky left the foundation. Devon, as she is known, is the sister of Frank Gaffney Jr., who heads the ultra hawkish Center for Security Policy (CSP). She also sits on CSP’s National Security Advisory Council. (24)

In 1981, SRF provided seed money for the Friends of the Democratic Center in Central America (Prodemca). In 1986, a member of Prodemca’s executive committee, Penn Kemble, told the Washington Post that the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), another SRF grant recipient, had given his group $400,000. According to Sidney Blumenthal, Prodemca had been “funneling most of the money to opponents of the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.” Prodemca spokespersons denied using NED-supplied funds to pay for newspaper ads supporting U.S. funding for the Contras. (14)

In the early 1980s, Smith Richardson teamed up with other conservative foundations to support the Capital Legal Foundation, which in 1984 was involved in defending General Westmoreland in his suit against CBS for a documentary the network made about his Vietnam years. The lawsuit turned political when Westmoreland’s lawyers complained that the law firm CBS had hired was creating an unequal playing field in the courtroom. CBS lawyers countered that conservative philanthropies such as Scaife (the largest backer), Olin, and Smith Richardson were “using the general to advance their own objectives: to legitimize the Vietnam War, intimidate the media, and lower the legal obstacles to libel judgments.” (22) (23)

Another SRF-funded legal organization is the Center for Individual Rights (CIR), which has litigated free speech cases and has advocated against “political correctness” codes by defending professors accused of sexually harassing students. Said CIR’s director of research, Robert R. Detlefsen: “Many of our clients would be white male college professors because these are the folks who find themselves victimized by political correctness.” (26) (27) (28)

On the environmental front, SRF has been active since at least the late 1990s supporting organizations that attack industry regulations. The foundation supported the American Enterprise Institute-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, which was created to write analyses on the impact of government regulations on business. AEI president Christopher DeMuth was a contributing analyst to the project; Robert W. Crandall and Clifford Winston represented Brookings. In November 2001, the Clean Air Trust named the AEI-Brookings Center as its Clean Air Villain of the Month. Described by the Trust as a “polluter friendly” organization, the Trust accused the Center of trying to associate smog cleanup operations with higher cases of skin cancer among the population. (29) (42)

In 2000, SRF provided startup funds to the Dui Hua Foundation, an International Republican Institute-sponsored organization that addresses issues concerning Chinese political prisoners. Also regarding China, SRF sponsored a RAND study that analyzed hypothetical scenarios that could emerge if the United States defended Taiwan against a Chinese attack. (30) (31) (34)

SRF has supported a number of centrist organizations, including the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, the New America Foundation, and the Tax Policy Center, which is jointly run by the Urban Institute and Brookings. SRF has also given money to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which also gets funding from the Ford and Carnegie foundations. Like many moderate global security groups—including the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control—IISS brushed aside Iraqi claims regarding its weapons arsenal before the U.S. invasion. (33) (36) (37) (38)

In November 2003, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal opened an investigation into the funding practices of Smith Richardson and The Beinecke Foundation, which are both based in Connecticut. The Boston Globe reported that SRF’s top executives—Peter Richardson, Marin Strmecki, and Robert L. Coble—had their vehicles paid for by the foundation. Richardson, whose annual salary at the time was $364,000, drove a $63,000 Audi A8 luxury sedan, while the other two, whose annual salaries were $225,000, owned an Audi station wagon and Jeep Cherokee, respectively, which each cost roughly $36,000. (39) (40)

Reported the Boston Globe: “In an interview, Richardson said he could not recall how the cars were approved by the foundation, which funds public policy research. Of his Audi, Richardson said, ‘I wanted to get a safe sedan.’ Smith Richardson also spent $6,700 for a portrait of a family benefactor, $2,600 on a chair, and bought four lamps at $1,300 a piece.” (40)

Funding

According to Mediatransparency, the Smith Richardson Foundation has awarded $135,973,704 since 1996. Top grantees include:

Individuals

Organizations

Contact Information

Smith Richardson Foundation
60 Jesup Road
Westport, CT 06880
Phone: (203) 222-6222
Email: jhollings@srf.org
Web: http://www.srf.org/

(2) Smith Richardson Foundation: International Security and Foreign Policy Program
http://www.srf.org/openings/International.htm

(3) Smith Richardson Foundation: Domestic Public Policy Program
http://www.srf.org/JF_Domestic_Description.htm

(4) Smith Richardson Foundation: Board of Trustees
http://www.srf.org/people/Trustees.htm

(5) Smith Richardson Foundation: Board of Governors
http://www.srf.org/people/Governors.htm

(6) Dana Canedy, “H. S. Richardson, 79, Dies; Heir to Vicks Cold Remedies,” TheNew York Times, July 31, 1999

(7) Bernard Weinraub, “Institute Plays Key Role in Shaping Reagan Programs,” The New York Times, January 14, 1981

(8) Bernard Weinraub, “Foundations Assist Conservative Cause,” The New York Times, January 19, 1981

(9) Kathleen Teltsch, “400 Intellectuals Form ‘Struggle for Freedom’ Unit,” The New York Times, February 19, 1981

(10) David Shribman, “Washington Talk; Neoconservatives and Reagan: Uneasy Coalition,” The New York Times, September 27, 1981

(11) Walter Goodman, “Irving Kristol: Patron Saint of the New Right,” The New York Times, December 6, 1981

(12) Dudley Clendinen, “Conservative Paper Stirs Dartmouth,” The New York Times, October 13, 1981

(13) Charles Austin, “New Church Group Assails Support for Left,” The New York Times, November 15, 1981

(14) Sidney Blumenthal, “Grantee of U.S. Endowment Funds Sandinista Opponents; Group’s Advertisements Urge Aid for Rebels,” The Washington Post, March 19, 1986

(15) Myron Struck and Cass Peterson, “Executive Notes,” The Washington Post, November 18, 1983

(16) Howard Kurtz, “USIA Aides Dispute ‘Blacklist’ Allegation,” The Washington Post, February 15, 1984

(17) Sidney Blumenthal, “Outside Foundation Recruited the Inside Troops,” The Washington Post, September 24, 1985

(18) Elmer Ploetz, “Americorps To Aid War On Terrorism: New Leader Outlines Role While Swearing in 150 Members Here,” Buffalo News, November 9, 2001

(19) Christopher Lee, “AmeriCorps May Have to Pare Volunteer Slots,” The Washington Post, May 22, 2003

(20) Dana Milbank, “Senators Try to Stem AmeriCorps Cuts: White House Supports Accounting Flexibility but is Silent on Added Funding,” The Washington Post, June 19, 2003

(21) Christopher Lee, “$411,655 in Bonuses at AmeriCorps’s Parent Agency Decried,” The Washington Post, August 15, 2003

(22) David Margolick, “Westmoreland V. CBS: Legal Drama Intensified by 2 Contrasting Lawyers,” The New York Times, May 31, 1984

(23) George Lardner Jr., “Pittsburgh Millionaire Financed Westmoreland’s Suit against CBS; Scaife, of New Right Causes, Paid Much of $3 Million Tab,” The Washington Post, February 28, 1985

(24) “Devon Gaffney, Research Director, Engaged to Marry Jay Cross in June,” The New York Times, April 9, 1989

(25) James Atlas, “What is Fukuyama Saying? And to Whom is He Saying It?” The New York Times, October 22, 1989

(26) Evan McKenzie, “Right-wing Money Creates a Political Issue,” St. Petersburg Times (Florida), June 26, 1991

(27) James Andrews, “Conservative Law Groups Adopt Liberals’ Model,” Christian Science Monitor, October 3, 1994

(28) Davidson Goldin, “Law Center Wages a Fight against Political Correctness,” The New York Times, August 13, 1995

(29) Cindy Skrzycki, “Bringing Brainpower to the Commentary on Rules,” The Washington Post, October 9, 1998

(30) Julie Chao, “China Invites Activist to Discuss Prisoners,” The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, May 1, 2000

(31) Ching Cheong, “U.S. Think Tank Tests Out War Scenarios,” The Straits Times (Singapore), December 1, 2000

(32) David Abel, “War’s Fall from Grace With the End of the Cold War, the Study of Warfare has Gone into a Sharp—and Perhaps Dangerous—Decline,” The Boston Globe, January 30, 2001

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