Sarah Marks Richards, a “powerhouse” in the Hawaii arts community who helped raise $32 million to restore the historic Hawaii Theatre to become a major performing arts center in downtown Honolulu, died Jan. 26 at Kahala Nui. She was 83.

Richards was a founder and president of Hawaii Opera Theatre, leading the organization’s independence from its parent, the Honolulu Symphony. In 1980, she was named executive director of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, overseeing the agency’s growth and achieving a national ranking for Hawaii as No. 1 in per capita state support for the arts.

Richards also served as president and, later, executive director, of Hawaii Theatre Center for 25 years before retiring in 2014. Following the restoration campaign, the center was named in 2005 as the Most Outstanding Historic Theater in America.

Gregory D. Dunn, president and CEO of Hawaii Theatre Center since 2017, recalled her as “the undeniable powerhouse nonprofit executive” in Honolulu.

“She had overseen what many had for years considered the impossible — the restoration of the iconic Hawaii Theatre — pulling many local businessmen and women along with her in the largest community effort of its kind at the time. It’s awe-inspiring to think that she and the board, led by Robert Midkiff, successfully raised over $32 million ($66 million in today’s dollars) to save and restore this community treasure.”

Midkiff’s daughter, Mary M. Fiedler, said Richards knew how to get things done.

“She was a lovely person. She was very determined, but she was always gracious, well-mannered and civilized. She knew what she wanted to do, and she was forthright about it, but she got it done,” Fiedler said.

Andrew Morgan, general director and CEO of Hawaii Opera Theatre, described Richards as “a staunch advocate for the arts.”

“The entire Honolulu arts community has lost a tireless patron, advocate, and friend,” Morgan said in a email sent to HOT supporters. “Sarah was instrumental in establishing HOT as an independent non-profit corporation in 1980 and served as the first President of the Board. She remained a valued and active member of the Board and the HOT ohana through all those years … .”

Richards came to the islands with an impressive list of life experiences. Born Dec. 31, 1941, in rural Sullivan, Ind., she rode her horse to school. After graduating in 1959 from Washington High School in Washington, Ind., she studied voice at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, earned a degree in English and music at DePauw University, got a teaching license and taught school in Denver before taking a year off to explore Europe with a friend.

Back in the U.S., she earned a graduate degree in higher education administration and psychology. At 26, she became dean of women at Albion College in Michigan, and after two years there was recruited to teach creative writing at Kamehameha Schools, moving to Hawaii in 1970. Richards said that when she discovered that no one at Kamehameha was interested in creative writing, she ended up teaching swimming instead.

That somehow led to her being hired as dean of students at Chaminade University.

She met her husband-to-be, Manning Richards, in 1972 when she was the head of the education committee for Hawaii Opera Theatre and he was playing a bare-chested Egyptian priest in a production of “Aida.”

“He was singing in the chorus,” Sarah Richards told PBS Hawaii’s “Long Story Short” host Leslie Wilcox in 2016. “My friends were fixing me up with the star, who sang the role of the king, who was a real opera star, Archie Drake. I went to the cast party with the king … but then (Manning and I) were introduced at the cast party. We were introduced in February of 1972, and we were married in December of ’72.”

It was a love to last a lifetime.

“Over the last 25-plus years of having the privilege of knowing her, I was always struck by the kind and loving relationship she shared with the love of her life, Manning Richards,” Dunn said. “Remembering the way they cared for and took care of each other over the years brings a smile to my face even today. For me, it was a lasting reminder of the importance of placing … one’s family and loved ones over all else, even when you’re tasked with such an important job.”

Richards’ lifetime support of the arts and arts education in Hawaii was recognized in 2015 when she received Hawaii Arts Alliance’s Alfred Preis Honor.

Richards’ departure from Hawaii Theatre Center wasn’t the end of her commitment to arts in Hawaii. She spent more time with HOT and joined the board of Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives. She also established the Sarah Marks Richards Opera Program Endowment in DePauw University’s School of Music.

In addition to her husband, Richards is survived by nieces and nephews.

Services will be held at 9 a.m. March 1 at Central Union Church. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Hawaii Theatre, Hawaii Opera Theatre and Hawaiian Mission Houses.