The Walter Alan Richards Foundation was incorporated on Sept. 28, 1956, for a period of 35 years. It was organized exclusively for religious, charitable, educational. scientific and literary purposes. The purpose was to acquire, administer, give, lend and otherwise manage and use funds for the above uses. It was managed and operated by the Board of Trustees of eleven members. The foundation had been dissolved in 2006 and rolled into the Community Foundation.

Walter Alan Richards was born in 1891 in Washington, D.C. He received a BS degree from Virginia Military Institute in 1913 in civil engineering. He joined the Hardaway Construction company in Columbus. He served in WWI as a first lieutenant in the Infantry. In 1922 he became city manager for Columbus, then went in 1928 to Tom Huston Peanut company where he became president and chairman of the board. He served as a city commissioner from 1946-1952. Then as mayor. He was named as one pf the original members of the new Muscogee county Board of Education. Richards championed the cause of education and the building of a junior college in Columbus which later became Columbus State University. A campus building bears his name as well as a middle school. He died in 1961.