A native of Athens in east Texas, Richardson attended Baylor University and Simmons College from 1910 to 1912.
With borrowed money, he and a business partner, Clint Murchison, Sr.,
amassed $1 million in the oil business in 1919-1920, but then watched their fortunes wane with the oil market, until business again boomed in 1933.

Richardson was president of Sid Richardson Gasoline Co. in Kermit, Sid Richardson Carbon Company in Odessa, and Sid W. Richardson, Inc., in Fort Worth, and was a partner in Fort Worth-based Richardson and Bass Oil Producers.

He began ranching in the 1930s and developed a love of Western art, particularly that of Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell.
He built one of the largest private collections of these artists' work, which opened to the public as the Sid Richardson Collection of Western Art in 1982.
 After a yearlong renovation, it reopened as the Sid Richardson Museum in 2006.

Richardson had already given numerous scholarships and gifts to local organizations when friend Amon G. Carter persuaded him to establish the Sid W. Richardson Foundation in 1947.
The foundation awards grants to Texas organizations in the areas of education, health, human services, and cultural institutions; grants in the latter two categories are restricted to groups in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex area.
The foundation's Fort Worth headquarters shares a building with the Sid Richardson Museum.

Upon his death aged 68 in 1959, Richardson, a bachelor, bequeathed a large portion of his estate to his foundation, and left several million dollars to his nephew-partner, Perry Richardson Bass.
Richardson named John B. Connally, the future Texas governor, as co-executor of the estate, a designation which provided Connally with steady income for years thereafter.

He also bought and donated land for the Sid Richardson Boy Scout Camp.
A native of Athens in east Texas, Richardson attended Baylor University and Simmons College from 1910 to 1912. With borrowed money, he and a business partner, Clint Murchison, Sr., amassed $1 million in the oil business in 1919-1920, but then watched their fortunes wane with the oil market, until business again boomed in 1933.
Richardson was president of Sid Richardson Gasoline Co. in Kermit, Sid Richardson Carbon Company in Odessa, and Sid W. Richardson, Inc., in Fort Worth, and was a partner in Fort Worth-based Richardson and Bass Oil Producers.
He began ranching in the 1930s and developed a love of Western art, particularly that of Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. He built one of the largest private collections of these artists' work, which opened to the public as the Sid Richardson Collection of Western Art in 1982.  After a yearlong renovation, it reopened as the Sid Richardson Museum in 2006.
Richardson had already given numerous scholarships and gifts to local organizations when friend Amon G. Carter persuaded him to establish the Sid W. Richardson Foundation in 1947. The foundation awards grants to Texas organizations in the areas of education, health, human services, and cultural institutions; grants in the latter two categories are restricted to groups in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex area. The foundation's Fort Worth headquarters shares a building with the Sid Richardson Museum.
Upon his death aged 68 in 1959, Richardson, a bachelor, bequeathed a large portion of his estate to his foundation, and left several million dollars to his nephew-partner, Perry Richardson Bass. Richardson named John B. Connally, the future Texas governor, as co-executor of the estate, a designation which provided Connally with steady income for years thereafter.
He also bought and donated land for the Sid Richardson Boy Scout Camp.
Sid W. Richardson