Erwin Hart Richards was born to Samuel Newton and Mary Hart Richards on May 4, 1851 in Orwell, Ohio. He received his education at Oberlin College with an A.B. in 1877 and an A.M. in 1880. Richards then attended Andover Theological Seminary where he received a degree in Sacred Theology in 1880. He was awarded an honorary D. Div. in 1897 from the University of New Orleans. Richards spent most of his life as a missionary in South East Africa, serving for thirty-three years with the Foreign Missionary Board of the Congregational Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church. He worked with the Zulu and Tonga tribes in Natal and Inhambane (now Mozambique). Richards founded the East Central Africa Mission in 1890; committed the Tonga language to written text in 1883-1884; founded 64 churches and schools across South East Africa; and translated the Bible and hymns into various African dialects. Richards was married three times. His first wife was Mattie A. Bebout, whom he married in 1880. He married his second wife, Carrie A. Duncanson, in 1883. His married his third and final wife, Mary Jane McClelland, on October 25, 1903. Erwin Richards retired in 1908, settling in Oberlin, Ohio in 1911. He died in 1928.