An audiovisual specialist with one of the largest corporations in the United States, a highly respected law professor and the lead counsel for a major insurance firm's western New York division have at least two things in common: they all have roots in Auburn, and they're each being honored this year by the local NAACP chapter.

The Auburn-Cayuga branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will pay tribute to Paul E. Richardson Jr., Deborah W. Post and Jack Hardy at its annual Freedom Fund Banquet on May 5.

The program, to be held at the Springside Inn in Auburn, will

also honor five area students and feature a special community service award.

Richardson, a Seward Elementary School and West High School alum, now lives in Pittsford and manages the staff counsel offices in Rochester and Buffalo for Allstate Insurance Co. He has worked for the firm for the past 25 years.

An award-winning veteran of the Vietnam War, Richardson became the first black deputy county attorney for Onondaga County.

He began working for the county after earning his law degree from Syracuse University.

He also spent several years as an adjunct professor at Onondaga Community College.

Post is currently a professor at the Jacob D. Fuchsberg School of Law at Touro College, which is based in New York City.

She was the valedictorian of the West High School class of 1967.

During her law career, Post has focused her work on business associations and contract law, legal education and critical race theory. Anthropology has been a major influence on her scholarly work.

She majored in that subject during her years at Hofstra University and spent time as a teaching assistant to highly respected anthropologist Margaret Mead.

Hardy works as a senior video/meeting production specialist for the Colgate-Palmolive Co.

He has expanded the company's audiovisual capabilities considerably since starting work there in 1984. He has managed meetings for the company in Mexico, Spain, England and the Ivory Coast.

Hardy's professional career, however, started in Auburn, where he was a high school English teacher. A graduate of West High School in 1970, Hardy grew up in a civic-minded family. His father, Charles, was Auburn's first black firefighter. His mother, Eleanor, was director of the Booker T. Washington Center.

Although he now lives in Ridgefield, N.J., Hardy stays connected to Auburn.

He and his wife still maintain the family property on Chapman Avenue, where they plan to live upon retirement. He has also supplied numerous materials to the Cayuga Museum, fueled by his belief in historic preservation.