Richter, Bud, 2006 Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award recipient
Item
Title
Richter, Bud, 2006 Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award recipient
Description
Discusses his life, his meeting and friendship with Leon S. Peters, how Peters inspired him towards community engagement and giving and receiving the Leon S. Peters Award.
Creator
Richter, Bud
Mehas, Dr. Peter G.
Relation
Leon S. Peters Legacy Collection
Coverage
Fresno, California
Date
1/17/2006
Format
Microsoft word 2003 document, 7 pages
Identifier
SCMS_lspl_00012
extracted text
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Bud Richter, 2006, Fresno County Chamber of Commerce Leon
S. Peters recipient. You know, Bud, every time I turn around, Bud Richter and
his wife are being acknowledged by our community. If it isn't for your induction
into the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame, it's for your contribution to Fresno
State, whether it's the School of Education and it's just not by happenstance
that you were selected by the Leon S. Peters recipient for 2006. Clearly I know
what makes this so special to you that you knew, not only knew Leon S. Peters,
you worked very closely to him, with him on a number of community wide projects.
Why don't we just begin? How did you know Leon S. Peters and how did you become
involved with Leon?
>>Bud Richter: Well I first remember meeting, he, Leon and Pete Peters, in the
alley behind the old Richter bottling company in 1949, 1950. I just was fresh
out of college, graduated from college and came home and my wife and I came here
to Fresno and we entered the family business. And we were on Mono and Broadway
and the Valley Foundry was right across the alley on H Street. And here's a
little kid, you know 23, 24 years old, just out of college, wet behind the ears
and every once in a while I'd see Leon or Pete out in the alley there and they
were always kind, smiling, friendly, warm and had time to say hi. And our
businesses both grew there to where we each had to leave the downtown Fresno
area but that's how I first got to know Leon and Pete Peters.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: We all know that Leon Peters was probably one of the most
successful businessmen that you use as an indicator of success. But Leon, as you
well know, this award that the chamber gives in his honor is much more than
being a successful businessman. There's other awards for that but it was for his
community philanthropy and his giving to our community. How did >>Bud Richter
get involved? It is clearly when people mention the top people in our community
who have given so much, the Hallowells, the Leon S. Peters, the >>Bud Richter
name is amongst them. Was this a family inherited trait? How did you get into
the putting back into your community? Cause clearly on the bottom line business
it's not one of the criteria for many successful business people but how did
>>Bud Richter get involved with philanthropy and community organization and why?
>>Bud Richter: Pete, the way, again, I was raised, one of the basic rules that
we were reared by was you should follow our good Lord Jesus commandment, do unto
others as you would have them do unto you. And others are our neighbor and our
community. And the other one was, you just can't keep taking out of the family
pot or the community pot or the education pot without putting something back in.
Otherwise there's nothing left for those that are gonna follow someday. And so
to me it's just something that's natural to say thank you. For over 100 years
this community has blessed our family and we have so much to be thankful for.
And I've heard Leon Peters say the very same thing. This community has blessed
us and we just have to say thank you and being able to give in any way our
talents, time or treasure can enable that, we should do it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: If you were to give advice to say a young business major
out at Cal State, Fresno, who wants to be a millionaire by the age of 22. So
much today is about corporations and the bottom line. What advice would you give
him about, or her, about getting involved with the community and how to be a
successful businessman? Cause clearly, clearly you look at your success as a
business person, you and your dad and what you've built for the community but
your reputation has really been built on giving to the community. What advice
would you give them?
>>Bud Richter: First of all, I think, a young college student, I would think
that you don't measure richness in the income you have. You measure richness in
the quality of your life that you have with family, with friends, with spiritual
values, with community and that comes about by sharing with others and being
concerned for others and caring for others, and again, doing unto others as you
would have them do unto you. People have been so kind to Jan and me and my
mother and father and my grandfather, grandmother, over the years that you just
can't help say thank you and say how can we somehow return our respect and
appreciation for what you've given us?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Faith, I was gonna say, excuse me, faith and family is
another thing that you associate the Richter family with. Faith, you've never
been one to go out and preach the gospel but you've lived the gospel, if you
will. When did faith become so important and an integral part of who you were?
>>Bud Richter: Mom raised my brother, King, and I to, we had scriptural readings
every morning before school. And it was just something that we, it was habit and
we learned how to pray and we learned how to respect God and to be thankful and
to somehow try and share the grace that God gives to us with others. So that
started from a very young age. And then when we was in the service, U.S. Navy
and came out of there and was in college and came back, that was in 1949 we came
back from college and we sort of got a little bit away from going to church,
working and being active and trying to establish, get a home established and
things like that, our family. But the church always played a part. And then in
1962 Billy Graham came to town and there were a lot of things happening in our
lives and as Billy preached, I was one of those, I don't know, 5, 10,000 people
at the Radcliff Stadium, that walked up there and laid out my life for him as
Lord and Savior and it's been a growing experience ever since, one I would never
change at all.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When Billy Graham came back to Fresno, who was leading the
charge? Was >>Bud Richter right there again, with the organization committee.
>>Bud Richter: We had 5,000 volunteers it seems like and Lou Herwaldt and many
others, G.L. Johnson and it was a wonderful experience and you were involved in
that as well. But walking the faith is something we try to do. We're not
perfect. No one is perfect but we do the best we can, we ask for forgiveness and
keep trying.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I don't think there’s been a time where I have been
privileged to watch you be a recipient of an award that you've ever, ever failed
not to mention, you've always mentioned Jan, your partner, and your faith. Let's
talk about your partner because you always attribute so much gracious credit to
her. How long have you and Jan been married and she really has been your partner
in more ways than one, hasn't she?
>>Bud Richter: On November 13th, 1943, I invited Jan to go to hear the Andrew
sisters at the old Memorial Auditorium here in Fresno. And after that event, I
asked her to go steady and she said yes. So here it was November 1943 through
January 2006 we've been going steady [laughter], some 62 years. And we've been
married 58, almost 59 years. And she's a mentor to me, maybe my number one
mentor. And while she may be look a little bit frail and slender, in her stature
I can assure you that she's got a lot of strength. And if I say Jan what do you
think about doing something like this? And she puts her hand on my shoulder and
says, no Bud, you're not gonna do it. [laughter] And you know what? We’re not
gonna do it because we've been together all the way through and so we've had a
chance to raise one son and a granddaughter, partially, with being grandparents,
which is a great attribute of being a family member. You know that? And
grandparents have a special place in life and so we've tried to fulfill that
role. But she and I, we retired in 1977 when we sold Pepsi and from that time we
sort of left the business for a little bit, involved with banking some, and been
trying to live each day and enjoy each day and give to the community as well as
take a little time for ourselves.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well it looks like after 62 years this might work out
okay. [laughter] You'll be together for a while.
>>Bud Richter: Yep, yep we're very grateful and she helped lead me to Christ
too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well you know it's interesting when you mention Pepsi
cause so many of us, the times we were young and considered ourselves athletes
at Fresno State so many of us had the privilege of working for Pepsi-Cola
Bottling Company for you and your dad. I can remember your dad vividly at the
plant and you. And again, there was nothing that compelled the Richters to hire
Fresno State student athletes, what was the motivation? Clearly the working
experience that so many of us got at Pepsi was more than just a job, again
giving to the community.
>>Bud Richter: Athletics is a great institution and it means so much in the
growing up process for a lot of young women and men. And the coaching of
athletics is so important. And my experience has been over the years that
coaches make outstanding administrators, teachers, ’cause they understand kids.
They know how, they teach them how to win, to lose, to work as a team together,
to be able to grow and improve their personal skills and help others. It is
something that if we can do anything we can to help athletics and help
education, because athletics should be a part of the education process. And at
Pepsi, our schools had their financial troubles, as you know, and trying to find
funds to fund the student body activities. They could get around and fund the
academic stuff but when it came time to giving some of the kids and the students
the full experience of student body activity, athletics, events and musical
events and stuff, they needed funds to do this for trips, for debate, for a lot
of these things. And so I had a lot of friends that were principals in education
and they shared with me the financial needs. And so at Pepsi we said let's get
in and see how we can help. [laughter]
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Score boards in the valley there was not a scoreboard put
up at a track area or football without >>Bud Richter and I can recall you
vividly out at Clovis changing, here you're one of the top brass with Pepsi-Cola
and you're out there helping the parent Booster's club change the Pepsi tanks
when they were empty so you really got involved in more ways than one with the
community.
>>Bud Richter: Well really it's important to serve that community. The
community’s been very good to us and we tried to do everything we could to help
the school systems throughout the valley here, generate some funds to be able to
support other student body activities.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: 1949 Fresno has really changed and you've seen many of the
changes. What are some of the more dramatic changes that you've seen since you
first came to Fresno and as we look at Fresno today and what are some of those
challenges that the changes, that you've seen, that the future generations are
gonna have to deal with? So let's sort of reflect a little bit upon the past in
the Fresno you were raised in and did business in and now the Fresno today.
>>Bud Richter: Well Jan and I were basically, I was born right here. Jan was
born in Corcoran and came here at five years of age. There was about 20-25,000
people in Fresno at that time, something like that. And we could go downtown and
we'd know people and know a lot of people and the high school, Fresno High
School, Edison, Fresno Tech and Roosevelt, those were the high schools. I mean
how great that was to know students at all these schools and have friends there,
participate in athletics, debates and various other activities. And you knew
people, you knew our people. And at that time our racial makeup was totally
different than it is today. We used to go on the airplane in the 50's and 60's
and couldn't help but know somebody, one, two, three, four, five people on every
airplane flight. Today I get on an airplane, [laughter] holding 200 people
headed for Dallas and don't know anybody. It's just so different in the vastness
that's here. And through education, through John Welty, through the School of
Education, I've learned really to really respect and appreciate our diversity.
And to learn that there's a great richness in this diversity which brings great
opportunity but also with it, a lot of responsibility. And so I see great
changes in that over my lifespan here. And hopefully the university, it trained
75 percent, Fresno State University trained 75 percent of our teachers and
administrators. We're having a doctoral program out there where we're going to
be able to train more doctors in education that they will continue to keep
finding ways to help improve education and to help this ethnic and diversity
become more and more a real benefit.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So many of us have been the beneficiaries of the efforts
of people such as you, the Smittcamps. You can go back and look at the stadiums,
the theatres, because of the vision of leadership of the Richters and the
Smittcamps and the Hallowells, etcetera. Do you think that this community as it
faces new challenge, people are concerned about the quality of the air, the
growth, the healthcare, do you think that this community will develop leaders,
like in the past, to meet these new challenges?
>>Bud Richter: They must. In my opinion, they must. And the very fact of this
Leon S. Peters Award, establishing that family, he and Alice and Pete, and that
whole family as a role model for other families to follow, in showing that
family’s legacy, each year to a number of people in this area. The media is very
wonderful about sharing that story. That it will hopefully give guidance and
inspire others to want to go ahead and be servant leaders like the Peters
family. And, Fresno is going to continue to grow. We're centrally located.
Doctor Welty calls us the New California, in here as the state moves more
eastward towards our area and we do have to be concerned with the quality of our
environment, the quality of our community, our fire, our police protection, our
education system and I think the good Lord seems to provide for those who want
to work. We ought to pray like it all depended on God but work like it all
depended on us. And you put that combination together and I would hope and pray
that this community will continue to be a quality place to live. We certainly
live geographically in a great place and more and more people will understand
that and respect it and no doubt come here. Think about what it's gonna be like
in 2100? I mean the population of what it will be here. And I would hope that
with Fresno State, the University of California up in Merced, the university in
Bakersfield, that kind of upper graduate education will continue to inspire us
to have more, a greater and greater percentage of people being educated. And I
think our future depends on the education of our population. Would you agree?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Oh absolutely. I was looking at your tie and it certainly
says a great deal, when you think of Fresno State, which I still call it Fresno
State.
>>Bud Richter: Me too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I'm a proud graduate, you think of who has been some of
the biggest yell leaders for the university and clearly whether it's Bob Duncan
or >>Bud Richter, you really have championed, not just education but Fresno
State overall. What is this? You went to Stanford.
>>Bud Richter: Yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And so maybe a little bit of the red comes in there but
you really have been a champion and a supporter. I know the School of Education,
not only with its current facilities but the scholarship you give to the
faculty, which is the Richter scholarship, which is a very coveted award. Why
that tie, why that tie with Fresno State? Even though your wife, I think,
graduated with Fresno State.
>>Bud Richter: Yeah, Jan's an alumnus, Jan's an alumnus but well you know
[laughter] I wore this tie purposely today because that bulldog spirit, as old
Jim Sweeney would say, is very special. But I think Fresno State is the chief
education center. It contains great hope for this whole central valley and how
they relate. I'm real proud of the way the last three presidents have connected
the faculty and administration in this community. It wasn't always like that.
People in this community used to say, well they're sort of aloof over there and
they'd do their thing and they let the community do theirs. They don't want to
intermix. That's not the case anymore. You, I mean we really have to be pleased
that the University leaderships through Baxter and Haak and Welty have said,
look it, we're a part of this community. We've got to take some leadership
responsibilities and we're gonna do it. And they are doin’ it. And the new
library that's coming in here is going to be available to this valley. And so
the bulldog spirit, when we built that stadium out there on campus, was one of
the purposes of that 10-member committee, of which Leon was basically the chair,
one of the three co-chairs, was to tie the community and the campus together and
to go ahead and make it possible for families to go out there on tailgates. And
little kids would go out there and see that Fresno State campus and see the
quality of academics and athletics and grow into that feeling and environment
and spirit that those kids want to come to Fresno State.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You know in tennis and golf we talk about the grand slam,
if you win the U.S. Open, the British Open. In Fresno there is an equivalency in
terms of some of the top, top awards and when I told people that I was going to
be interviewing you they said, Bud Richter, he's a Leon S. Peters recipient so I
said he's been about everything else. So this is, and even though you do not
come at these things, you do not seek them, that's probably why you're the
recipient of them is you don't. You just do what you want to do for the good of
the community. But now the sort of the crown jewel in the accomplishments of
>>Bud Richter and his family, what did it mean? You knew Leon S. Peters. You
knew Alice. You've been an integral part of our community. The final analysis,
what did it mean to you personally to be the recipient of the Leon S. Peters
Award for 2006?
>>Bud Richter: I never expected it. I mean we sold our business in 1977 and most
of your recipients are related businesswise. And while we contributed, I think,
significantly at Pepsi, when we sold our business we just did it then as
individuals thereafter and the link of business was not there. And I served with
Leon on the Community Hospital Board of Trustees and I found him to be an
inspiring leader. He was a good listener. He sought diversity of opinion. He
made himself vulnerable to others in that he spoke what he thought was truth.
Truth was a part of his legacy, integrity, honesty and serving under him was
always a learning experience, and yet he wasn't teaching. He was just being
himself. And what kind of a better teacher can you have? And then I served with
him on the Foundation board, the business school advisory board and served with
him a number of years in a number of boards and so he was a special mentor to
me. He gave me varied duties that were significant. He expected me [laughter] to
complete them. And the good Lord willing, I think we did most of them and but he
was such a mentor to so many in this community and I was privileged to be one of
them. And so his gracious generosity, he and Alice and the family, through
themselves and their foundation after his passing, has set role models and
examples, I think for, any family should be very proud to have even a part of
that kind of a legacy in their life. And so to be chosen and recognized very
surprisingly and for doing something we just think is automatic because the way
we were raised by do unto others as you have them do unto you, we can't keep
taking out of the community pot without putting back in, it's a surprise. And
you wonder why are we awarded? This is something everybody should be doing.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well when you look at the past inductees, the Larry
Shehadeys, Earl Smittcamps, Helen Smades, the Bob Duncans, as a person growing
up in our community, I think the richness is that the Bud Richters have served
as mentors for many of the youth in our community who then feel that we've
watched and we've seen what you've contributed to the community and you've said
role models. And I know you feel uncomfortable when people give you compliments
because you're always the first to defer to both Jan and to your Lord and Savior
but that's >>Bud Richter. So I'd just like to say, Bud, on behalf of the greater
Fresno Chamber of Commerce, they could not have picked anybody more deserving of
this incredible award, the Leon S. Peters Award, than >>Bud Richter. So our
congratulations and I know that with you you'll continue. Until the day you go
on to other things, you'll contribute to the community. So congratulations on a
well deserved award.
>>Bud Richter: Thank you. Jan and I are very humbled and thank you and the
community and the Chamber for this very outstanding recognition of a family that
meant so much to us and to this community.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Anything I should have asked that I didn't ask that you
[laughter] want to add to, ‘cause I always go through -- that you can think of?
’Cause I know you never leave anything to chance. [laughter] Buddy Richter
leaves no stone unturned. But I wanted to cover a little bit about your family.
I wanted to cover a little bit above the award itself and you're very
[inaudible]
>>Bud Richter: I didn't get a chance to say I've had many people help me in my
mentoring. And mention about Leon Peters being really an outstanding mentor to
me but I've, Jan and I have both been blessed by a number of great, fine,
community people that have helped mentor me. So accepting this kind of
recognition is only done when I represent the team that helped me build and
create the values that we seem to have and try to live out. And there's a number
of these people. And I don't know whether I should attempt to name them but
certainly the Lou Herwaldts and the Bob Duncans and the, I mean yourself, we
have you see John Welty and Bob Oliver and Pat Ogle. The coaches, Hal Beatty.
you know, what a wonderful, Cecil Coleman, was he your coach, Cecil Coleman?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yes, I played for Cecil.
>>Bud Richter: And I mean you can't be around these quality kind of people
without some of it rubbing off. And these were all and are great teachers too.
And so I mean there's a number, I have probably got 40, 50 of these people that
we've had a chance to work with, associate with. The employees at Pepsi, wow,
what a great group. And I think we have to acknowledge that while we invested
heavily in this community at Pepsi, wanting to say thank you to us when we've
been there for 80 years in business with them, in gratitude. We have now the
Pepsi-Cola Company that is owned by the stockholders throughout the world and
based in New York and they continue to contribute significantly to this
community, such as the $40 million for the Save Mart Center. That isn't done
everywhere. But I think the kind of pattern and belief system that we had that
education was critically important, they have continued to follow and I am real
pleased and humbled and proud that they have continued to serve this community
the way they have. Jan and I had three areas that we wanted to give. We talked
about it early on that we had, we're the kind of people that we felt we had to
go ahead and raise a family and we had to make a living and the other one, we
had to serve. We wouldn't be happy just being takers. We had to serve and to
give and so we chose three areas to give in and that was education, healthcare
and in our spiritual life and to help that and foster that with others. And so
those were the three areas that we have chosen to serve because you can't serve
everything and so we've been blessed in that service. Jan and I have so much to
be thankful for. And our many friends over the years, our family has been super
to us. They've been mentors from my great, my grandma who was left with five
kids, the last one even in her womb when her husband died. Working with very
meager means. Ending up with two children graduating from Stanford, one from
Cal. My mother going to school here in was Heald College, I think, the Four C's
College in those days. Went to work at the Routt Lumber Company, an old lumber
company here. Married my dad and we have a great heritage. My grandfather came
here in 1895 with railcar with box and bottles and cases and some machinery,
coming down here, opened up a little bottling house, I guess you'd say on
Mariposa Street between Van Ness and Fulton Street. I think wheeling on a
wheelbarrow, initially soft drinks and beer and contributing to the community at
those times. We've just been really blessed with the heritage and there's no
other way to live without saying thank you so I thank you again for this.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well being the teacher that I am, I have to give you
grades on those three areas. [laughter] And so you get A+ on all of those, Bud
Richter. Congratulations.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
S. Peters recipient. You know, Bud, every time I turn around, Bud Richter and
his wife are being acknowledged by our community. If it isn't for your induction
into the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame, it's for your contribution to Fresno
State, whether it's the School of Education and it's just not by happenstance
that you were selected by the Leon S. Peters recipient for 2006. Clearly I know
what makes this so special to you that you knew, not only knew Leon S. Peters,
you worked very closely to him, with him on a number of community wide projects.
Why don't we just begin? How did you know Leon S. Peters and how did you become
involved with Leon?
>>Bud Richter: Well I first remember meeting, he, Leon and Pete Peters, in the
alley behind the old Richter bottling company in 1949, 1950. I just was fresh
out of college, graduated from college and came home and my wife and I came here
to Fresno and we entered the family business. And we were on Mono and Broadway
and the Valley Foundry was right across the alley on H Street. And here's a
little kid, you know 23, 24 years old, just out of college, wet behind the ears
and every once in a while I'd see Leon or Pete out in the alley there and they
were always kind, smiling, friendly, warm and had time to say hi. And our
businesses both grew there to where we each had to leave the downtown Fresno
area but that's how I first got to know Leon and Pete Peters.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: We all know that Leon Peters was probably one of the most
successful businessmen that you use as an indicator of success. But Leon, as you
well know, this award that the chamber gives in his honor is much more than
being a successful businessman. There's other awards for that but it was for his
community philanthropy and his giving to our community. How did >>Bud Richter
get involved? It is clearly when people mention the top people in our community
who have given so much, the Hallowells, the Leon S. Peters, the >>Bud Richter
name is amongst them. Was this a family inherited trait? How did you get into
the putting back into your community? Cause clearly on the bottom line business
it's not one of the criteria for many successful business people but how did
>>Bud Richter get involved with philanthropy and community organization and why?
>>Bud Richter: Pete, the way, again, I was raised, one of the basic rules that
we were reared by was you should follow our good Lord Jesus commandment, do unto
others as you would have them do unto you. And others are our neighbor and our
community. And the other one was, you just can't keep taking out of the family
pot or the community pot or the education pot without putting something back in.
Otherwise there's nothing left for those that are gonna follow someday. And so
to me it's just something that's natural to say thank you. For over 100 years
this community has blessed our family and we have so much to be thankful for.
And I've heard Leon Peters say the very same thing. This community has blessed
us and we just have to say thank you and being able to give in any way our
talents, time or treasure can enable that, we should do it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: If you were to give advice to say a young business major
out at Cal State, Fresno, who wants to be a millionaire by the age of 22. So
much today is about corporations and the bottom line. What advice would you give
him about, or her, about getting involved with the community and how to be a
successful businessman? Cause clearly, clearly you look at your success as a
business person, you and your dad and what you've built for the community but
your reputation has really been built on giving to the community. What advice
would you give them?
>>Bud Richter: First of all, I think, a young college student, I would think
that you don't measure richness in the income you have. You measure richness in
the quality of your life that you have with family, with friends, with spiritual
values, with community and that comes about by sharing with others and being
concerned for others and caring for others, and again, doing unto others as you
would have them do unto you. People have been so kind to Jan and me and my
mother and father and my grandfather, grandmother, over the years that you just
can't help say thank you and say how can we somehow return our respect and
appreciation for what you've given us?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Faith, I was gonna say, excuse me, faith and family is
another thing that you associate the Richter family with. Faith, you've never
been one to go out and preach the gospel but you've lived the gospel, if you
will. When did faith become so important and an integral part of who you were?
>>Bud Richter: Mom raised my brother, King, and I to, we had scriptural readings
every morning before school. And it was just something that we, it was habit and
we learned how to pray and we learned how to respect God and to be thankful and
to somehow try and share the grace that God gives to us with others. So that
started from a very young age. And then when we was in the service, U.S. Navy
and came out of there and was in college and came back, that was in 1949 we came
back from college and we sort of got a little bit away from going to church,
working and being active and trying to establish, get a home established and
things like that, our family. But the church always played a part. And then in
1962 Billy Graham came to town and there were a lot of things happening in our
lives and as Billy preached, I was one of those, I don't know, 5, 10,000 people
at the Radcliff Stadium, that walked up there and laid out my life for him as
Lord and Savior and it's been a growing experience ever since, one I would never
change at all.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When Billy Graham came back to Fresno, who was leading the
charge? Was >>Bud Richter right there again, with the organization committee.
>>Bud Richter: We had 5,000 volunteers it seems like and Lou Herwaldt and many
others, G.L. Johnson and it was a wonderful experience and you were involved in
that as well. But walking the faith is something we try to do. We're not
perfect. No one is perfect but we do the best we can, we ask for forgiveness and
keep trying.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I don't think there’s been a time where I have been
privileged to watch you be a recipient of an award that you've ever, ever failed
not to mention, you've always mentioned Jan, your partner, and your faith. Let's
talk about your partner because you always attribute so much gracious credit to
her. How long have you and Jan been married and she really has been your partner
in more ways than one, hasn't she?
>>Bud Richter: On November 13th, 1943, I invited Jan to go to hear the Andrew
sisters at the old Memorial Auditorium here in Fresno. And after that event, I
asked her to go steady and she said yes. So here it was November 1943 through
January 2006 we've been going steady [laughter], some 62 years. And we've been
married 58, almost 59 years. And she's a mentor to me, maybe my number one
mentor. And while she may be look a little bit frail and slender, in her stature
I can assure you that she's got a lot of strength. And if I say Jan what do you
think about doing something like this? And she puts her hand on my shoulder and
says, no Bud, you're not gonna do it. [laughter] And you know what? We’re not
gonna do it because we've been together all the way through and so we've had a
chance to raise one son and a granddaughter, partially, with being grandparents,
which is a great attribute of being a family member. You know that? And
grandparents have a special place in life and so we've tried to fulfill that
role. But she and I, we retired in 1977 when we sold Pepsi and from that time we
sort of left the business for a little bit, involved with banking some, and been
trying to live each day and enjoy each day and give to the community as well as
take a little time for ourselves.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well it looks like after 62 years this might work out
okay. [laughter] You'll be together for a while.
>>Bud Richter: Yep, yep we're very grateful and she helped lead me to Christ
too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well you know it's interesting when you mention Pepsi
cause so many of us, the times we were young and considered ourselves athletes
at Fresno State so many of us had the privilege of working for Pepsi-Cola
Bottling Company for you and your dad. I can remember your dad vividly at the
plant and you. And again, there was nothing that compelled the Richters to hire
Fresno State student athletes, what was the motivation? Clearly the working
experience that so many of us got at Pepsi was more than just a job, again
giving to the community.
>>Bud Richter: Athletics is a great institution and it means so much in the
growing up process for a lot of young women and men. And the coaching of
athletics is so important. And my experience has been over the years that
coaches make outstanding administrators, teachers, ’cause they understand kids.
They know how, they teach them how to win, to lose, to work as a team together,
to be able to grow and improve their personal skills and help others. It is
something that if we can do anything we can to help athletics and help
education, because athletics should be a part of the education process. And at
Pepsi, our schools had their financial troubles, as you know, and trying to find
funds to fund the student body activities. They could get around and fund the
academic stuff but when it came time to giving some of the kids and the students
the full experience of student body activity, athletics, events and musical
events and stuff, they needed funds to do this for trips, for debate, for a lot
of these things. And so I had a lot of friends that were principals in education
and they shared with me the financial needs. And so at Pepsi we said let's get
in and see how we can help. [laughter]
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Score boards in the valley there was not a scoreboard put
up at a track area or football without >>Bud Richter and I can recall you
vividly out at Clovis changing, here you're one of the top brass with Pepsi-Cola
and you're out there helping the parent Booster's club change the Pepsi tanks
when they were empty so you really got involved in more ways than one with the
community.
>>Bud Richter: Well really it's important to serve that community. The
community’s been very good to us and we tried to do everything we could to help
the school systems throughout the valley here, generate some funds to be able to
support other student body activities.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: 1949 Fresno has really changed and you've seen many of the
changes. What are some of the more dramatic changes that you've seen since you
first came to Fresno and as we look at Fresno today and what are some of those
challenges that the changes, that you've seen, that the future generations are
gonna have to deal with? So let's sort of reflect a little bit upon the past in
the Fresno you were raised in and did business in and now the Fresno today.
>>Bud Richter: Well Jan and I were basically, I was born right here. Jan was
born in Corcoran and came here at five years of age. There was about 20-25,000
people in Fresno at that time, something like that. And we could go downtown and
we'd know people and know a lot of people and the high school, Fresno High
School, Edison, Fresno Tech and Roosevelt, those were the high schools. I mean
how great that was to know students at all these schools and have friends there,
participate in athletics, debates and various other activities. And you knew
people, you knew our people. And at that time our racial makeup was totally
different than it is today. We used to go on the airplane in the 50's and 60's
and couldn't help but know somebody, one, two, three, four, five people on every
airplane flight. Today I get on an airplane, [laughter] holding 200 people
headed for Dallas and don't know anybody. It's just so different in the vastness
that's here. And through education, through John Welty, through the School of
Education, I've learned really to really respect and appreciate our diversity.
And to learn that there's a great richness in this diversity which brings great
opportunity but also with it, a lot of responsibility. And so I see great
changes in that over my lifespan here. And hopefully the university, it trained
75 percent, Fresno State University trained 75 percent of our teachers and
administrators. We're having a doctoral program out there where we're going to
be able to train more doctors in education that they will continue to keep
finding ways to help improve education and to help this ethnic and diversity
become more and more a real benefit.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So many of us have been the beneficiaries of the efforts
of people such as you, the Smittcamps. You can go back and look at the stadiums,
the theatres, because of the vision of leadership of the Richters and the
Smittcamps and the Hallowells, etcetera. Do you think that this community as it
faces new challenge, people are concerned about the quality of the air, the
growth, the healthcare, do you think that this community will develop leaders,
like in the past, to meet these new challenges?
>>Bud Richter: They must. In my opinion, they must. And the very fact of this
Leon S. Peters Award, establishing that family, he and Alice and Pete, and that
whole family as a role model for other families to follow, in showing that
family’s legacy, each year to a number of people in this area. The media is very
wonderful about sharing that story. That it will hopefully give guidance and
inspire others to want to go ahead and be servant leaders like the Peters
family. And, Fresno is going to continue to grow. We're centrally located.
Doctor Welty calls us the New California, in here as the state moves more
eastward towards our area and we do have to be concerned with the quality of our
environment, the quality of our community, our fire, our police protection, our
education system and I think the good Lord seems to provide for those who want
to work. We ought to pray like it all depended on God but work like it all
depended on us. And you put that combination together and I would hope and pray
that this community will continue to be a quality place to live. We certainly
live geographically in a great place and more and more people will understand
that and respect it and no doubt come here. Think about what it's gonna be like
in 2100? I mean the population of what it will be here. And I would hope that
with Fresno State, the University of California up in Merced, the university in
Bakersfield, that kind of upper graduate education will continue to inspire us
to have more, a greater and greater percentage of people being educated. And I
think our future depends on the education of our population. Would you agree?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Oh absolutely. I was looking at your tie and it certainly
says a great deal, when you think of Fresno State, which I still call it Fresno
State.
>>Bud Richter: Me too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I'm a proud graduate, you think of who has been some of
the biggest yell leaders for the university and clearly whether it's Bob Duncan
or >>Bud Richter, you really have championed, not just education but Fresno
State overall. What is this? You went to Stanford.
>>Bud Richter: Yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And so maybe a little bit of the red comes in there but
you really have been a champion and a supporter. I know the School of Education,
not only with its current facilities but the scholarship you give to the
faculty, which is the Richter scholarship, which is a very coveted award. Why
that tie, why that tie with Fresno State? Even though your wife, I think,
graduated with Fresno State.
>>Bud Richter: Yeah, Jan's an alumnus, Jan's an alumnus but well you know
[laughter] I wore this tie purposely today because that bulldog spirit, as old
Jim Sweeney would say, is very special. But I think Fresno State is the chief
education center. It contains great hope for this whole central valley and how
they relate. I'm real proud of the way the last three presidents have connected
the faculty and administration in this community. It wasn't always like that.
People in this community used to say, well they're sort of aloof over there and
they'd do their thing and they let the community do theirs. They don't want to
intermix. That's not the case anymore. You, I mean we really have to be pleased
that the University leaderships through Baxter and Haak and Welty have said,
look it, we're a part of this community. We've got to take some leadership
responsibilities and we're gonna do it. And they are doin’ it. And the new
library that's coming in here is going to be available to this valley. And so
the bulldog spirit, when we built that stadium out there on campus, was one of
the purposes of that 10-member committee, of which Leon was basically the chair,
one of the three co-chairs, was to tie the community and the campus together and
to go ahead and make it possible for families to go out there on tailgates. And
little kids would go out there and see that Fresno State campus and see the
quality of academics and athletics and grow into that feeling and environment
and spirit that those kids want to come to Fresno State.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You know in tennis and golf we talk about the grand slam,
if you win the U.S. Open, the British Open. In Fresno there is an equivalency in
terms of some of the top, top awards and when I told people that I was going to
be interviewing you they said, Bud Richter, he's a Leon S. Peters recipient so I
said he's been about everything else. So this is, and even though you do not
come at these things, you do not seek them, that's probably why you're the
recipient of them is you don't. You just do what you want to do for the good of
the community. But now the sort of the crown jewel in the accomplishments of
>>Bud Richter and his family, what did it mean? You knew Leon S. Peters. You
knew Alice. You've been an integral part of our community. The final analysis,
what did it mean to you personally to be the recipient of the Leon S. Peters
Award for 2006?
>>Bud Richter: I never expected it. I mean we sold our business in 1977 and most
of your recipients are related businesswise. And while we contributed, I think,
significantly at Pepsi, when we sold our business we just did it then as
individuals thereafter and the link of business was not there. And I served with
Leon on the Community Hospital Board of Trustees and I found him to be an
inspiring leader. He was a good listener. He sought diversity of opinion. He
made himself vulnerable to others in that he spoke what he thought was truth.
Truth was a part of his legacy, integrity, honesty and serving under him was
always a learning experience, and yet he wasn't teaching. He was just being
himself. And what kind of a better teacher can you have? And then I served with
him on the Foundation board, the business school advisory board and served with
him a number of years in a number of boards and so he was a special mentor to
me. He gave me varied duties that were significant. He expected me [laughter] to
complete them. And the good Lord willing, I think we did most of them and but he
was such a mentor to so many in this community and I was privileged to be one of
them. And so his gracious generosity, he and Alice and the family, through
themselves and their foundation after his passing, has set role models and
examples, I think for, any family should be very proud to have even a part of
that kind of a legacy in their life. And so to be chosen and recognized very
surprisingly and for doing something we just think is automatic because the way
we were raised by do unto others as you have them do unto you, we can't keep
taking out of the community pot without putting back in, it's a surprise. And
you wonder why are we awarded? This is something everybody should be doing.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well when you look at the past inductees, the Larry
Shehadeys, Earl Smittcamps, Helen Smades, the Bob Duncans, as a person growing
up in our community, I think the richness is that the Bud Richters have served
as mentors for many of the youth in our community who then feel that we've
watched and we've seen what you've contributed to the community and you've said
role models. And I know you feel uncomfortable when people give you compliments
because you're always the first to defer to both Jan and to your Lord and Savior
but that's >>Bud Richter. So I'd just like to say, Bud, on behalf of the greater
Fresno Chamber of Commerce, they could not have picked anybody more deserving of
this incredible award, the Leon S. Peters Award, than >>Bud Richter. So our
congratulations and I know that with you you'll continue. Until the day you go
on to other things, you'll contribute to the community. So congratulations on a
well deserved award.
>>Bud Richter: Thank you. Jan and I are very humbled and thank you and the
community and the Chamber for this very outstanding recognition of a family that
meant so much to us and to this community.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Anything I should have asked that I didn't ask that you
[laughter] want to add to, ‘cause I always go through -- that you can think of?
’Cause I know you never leave anything to chance. [laughter] Buddy Richter
leaves no stone unturned. But I wanted to cover a little bit about your family.
I wanted to cover a little bit above the award itself and you're very
[inaudible]
>>Bud Richter: I didn't get a chance to say I've had many people help me in my
mentoring. And mention about Leon Peters being really an outstanding mentor to
me but I've, Jan and I have both been blessed by a number of great, fine,
community people that have helped mentor me. So accepting this kind of
recognition is only done when I represent the team that helped me build and
create the values that we seem to have and try to live out. And there's a number
of these people. And I don't know whether I should attempt to name them but
certainly the Lou Herwaldts and the Bob Duncans and the, I mean yourself, we
have you see John Welty and Bob Oliver and Pat Ogle. The coaches, Hal Beatty.
you know, what a wonderful, Cecil Coleman, was he your coach, Cecil Coleman?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yes, I played for Cecil.
>>Bud Richter: And I mean you can't be around these quality kind of people
without some of it rubbing off. And these were all and are great teachers too.
And so I mean there's a number, I have probably got 40, 50 of these people that
we've had a chance to work with, associate with. The employees at Pepsi, wow,
what a great group. And I think we have to acknowledge that while we invested
heavily in this community at Pepsi, wanting to say thank you to us when we've
been there for 80 years in business with them, in gratitude. We have now the
Pepsi-Cola Company that is owned by the stockholders throughout the world and
based in New York and they continue to contribute significantly to this
community, such as the $40 million for the Save Mart Center. That isn't done
everywhere. But I think the kind of pattern and belief system that we had that
education was critically important, they have continued to follow and I am real
pleased and humbled and proud that they have continued to serve this community
the way they have. Jan and I had three areas that we wanted to give. We talked
about it early on that we had, we're the kind of people that we felt we had to
go ahead and raise a family and we had to make a living and the other one, we
had to serve. We wouldn't be happy just being takers. We had to serve and to
give and so we chose three areas to give in and that was education, healthcare
and in our spiritual life and to help that and foster that with others. And so
those were the three areas that we have chosen to serve because you can't serve
everything and so we've been blessed in that service. Jan and I have so much to
be thankful for. And our many friends over the years, our family has been super
to us. They've been mentors from my great, my grandma who was left with five
kids, the last one even in her womb when her husband died. Working with very
meager means. Ending up with two children graduating from Stanford, one from
Cal. My mother going to school here in was Heald College, I think, the Four C's
College in those days. Went to work at the Routt Lumber Company, an old lumber
company here. Married my dad and we have a great heritage. My grandfather came
here in 1895 with railcar with box and bottles and cases and some machinery,
coming down here, opened up a little bottling house, I guess you'd say on
Mariposa Street between Van Ness and Fulton Street. I think wheeling on a
wheelbarrow, initially soft drinks and beer and contributing to the community at
those times. We've just been really blessed with the heritage and there's no
other way to live without saying thank you so I thank you again for this.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well being the teacher that I am, I have to give you
grades on those three areas. [laughter] And so you get A+ on all of those, Bud
Richter. Congratulations.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Bud Richter, 2006, Fresno County Chamber of Commerce Leon
S. Peters recipient. You know, Bud, every time I turn around, Bud Richter and
his wife are being acknowledged by our community. If it isn't for your induction
into the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame, it's for your contribution to Fresno
State, whether it's the School of Education and it's just not by happenstance
that you were selected by the Leon S. Peters recipient for 2006. Clearly I know
what makes this so special to you that you knew, not only knew Leon S. Peters,
you worked very closely to him, with him on a number of community wide projects.
Why don't we just begin? How did you know Leon S. Peters and how did you become
involved with Leon?
>>Bud Richter: Well I first remember meeting, he, Leon and Pete Peters, in the
alley behind the old Richter bottling company in 1949, 1950. I just was fresh
out of college, graduated from college and came home and my wife and I came here
to Fresno and we entered the family business. And we were on Mono and Broadway
and the Valley Foundry was right across the alley on H Street. And here's a
little kid, you know 23, 24 years old, just out of college, wet behind the ears
and every once in a while I'd see Leon or Pete out in the alley there and they
were always kind, smiling, friendly, warm and had time to say hi. And our
businesses both grew there to where we each had to leave the downtown Fresno
area but that's how I first got to know Leon and Pete Peters.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: We all know that Leon Peters was probably one of the most
successful businessmen that you use as an indicator of success. But Leon, as you
well know, this award that the chamber gives in his honor is much more than
being a successful businessman. There's other awards for that but it was for his
community philanthropy and his giving to our community. How did >>Bud Richter
get involved? It is clearly when people mention the top people in our community
who have given so much, the Hallowells, the Leon S. Peters, the >>Bud Richter
name is amongst them. Was this a family inherited trait? How did you get into
the putting back into your community? Cause clearly on the bottom line business
it's not one of the criteria for many successful business people but how did
>>Bud Richter get involved with philanthropy and community organization and why?
>>Bud Richter: Pete, the way, again, I was raised, one of the basic rules that
we were reared by was you should follow our good Lord Jesus commandment, do unto
others as you would have them do unto you. And others are our neighbor and our
community. And the other one was, you just can't keep taking out of the family
pot or the community pot or the education pot without putting something back in.
Otherwise there's nothing left for those that are gonna follow someday. And so
to me it's just something that's natural to say thank you. For over 100 years
this community has blessed our family and we have so much to be thankful for.
And I've heard Leon Peters say the very same thing. This community has blessed
us and we just have to say thank you and being able to give in any way our
talents, time or treasure can enable that, we should do it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: If you were to give advice to say a young business major
out at Cal State, Fresno, who wants to be a millionaire by the age of 22. So
much today is about corporations and the bottom line. What advice would you give
him about, or her, about getting involved with the community and how to be a
successful businessman? Cause clearly, clearly you look at your success as a
business person, you and your dad and what you've built for the community but
your reputation has really been built on giving to the community. What advice
would you give them?
>>Bud Richter: First of all, I think, a young college student, I would think
that you don't measure richness in the income you have. You measure richness in
the quality of your life that you have with family, with friends, with spiritual
values, with community and that comes about by sharing with others and being
concerned for others and caring for others, and again, doing unto others as you
would have them do unto you. People have been so kind to Jan and me and my
mother and father and my grandfather, grandmother, over the years that you just
can't help say thank you and say how can we somehow return our respect and
appreciation for what you've given us?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Faith, I was gonna say, excuse me, faith and family is
another thing that you associate the Richter family with. Faith, you've never
been one to go out and preach the gospel but you've lived the gospel, if you
will. When did faith become so important and an integral part of who you were?
>>Bud Richter: Mom raised my brother, King, and I to, we had scriptural readings
every morning before school. And it was just something that we, it was habit and
we learned how to pray and we learned how to respect God and to be thankful and
to somehow try and share the grace that God gives to us with others. So that
started from a very young age. And then when we was in the service, U.S. Navy
and came out of there and was in college and came back, that was in 1949 we came
back from college and we sort of got a little bit away from going to church,
working and being active and trying to establish, get a home established and
things like that, our family. But the church always played a part. And then in
1962 Billy Graham came to town and there were a lot of things happening in our
lives and as Billy preached, I was one of those, I don't know, 5, 10,000 people
at the Radcliff Stadium, that walked up there and laid out my life for him as
Lord and Savior and it's been a growing experience ever since, one I would never
change at all.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When Billy Graham came back to Fresno, who was leading the
charge? Was >>Bud Richter right there again, with the organization committee.
>>Bud Richter: We had 5,000 volunteers it seems like and Lou Herwaldt and many
others, G.L. Johnson and it was a wonderful experience and you were involved in
that as well. But walking the faith is something we try to do. We're not
perfect. No one is perfect but we do the best we can, we ask for forgiveness and
keep trying.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I don't think there’s been a time where I have been
privileged to watch you be a recipient of an award that you've ever, ever failed
not to mention, you've always mentioned Jan, your partner, and your faith. Let's
talk about your partner because you always attribute so much gracious credit to
her. How long have you and Jan been married and she really has been your partner
in more ways than one, hasn't she?
>>Bud Richter: On November 13th, 1943, I invited Jan to go to hear the Andrew
sisters at the old Memorial Auditorium here in Fresno. And after that event, I
asked her to go steady and she said yes. So here it was November 1943 through
January 2006 we've been going steady [laughter], some 62 years. And we've been
married 58, almost 59 years. And she's a mentor to me, maybe my number one
mentor. And while she may be look a little bit frail and slender, in her stature
I can assure you that she's got a lot of strength. And if I say Jan what do you
think about doing something like this? And she puts her hand on my shoulder and
says, no Bud, you're not gonna do it. [laughter] And you know what? We’re not
gonna do it because we've been together all the way through and so we've had a
chance to raise one son and a granddaughter, partially, with being grandparents,
which is a great attribute of being a family member. You know that? And
grandparents have a special place in life and so we've tried to fulfill that
role. But she and I, we retired in 1977 when we sold Pepsi and from that time we
sort of left the business for a little bit, involved with banking some, and been
trying to live each day and enjoy each day and give to the community as well as
take a little time for ourselves.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well it looks like after 62 years this might work out
okay. [laughter] You'll be together for a while.
>>Bud Richter: Yep, yep we're very grateful and she helped lead me to Christ
too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well you know it's interesting when you mention Pepsi
cause so many of us, the times we were young and considered ourselves athletes
at Fresno State so many of us had the privilege of working for Pepsi-Cola
Bottling Company for you and your dad. I can remember your dad vividly at the
plant and you. And again, there was nothing that compelled the Richters to hire
Fresno State student athletes, what was the motivation? Clearly the working
experience that so many of us got at Pepsi was more than just a job, again
giving to the community.
>>Bud Richter: Athletics is a great institution and it means so much in the
growing up process for a lot of young women and men. And the coaching of
athletics is so important. And my experience has been over the years that
coaches make outstanding administrators, teachers, ’cause they understand kids.
They know how, they teach them how to win, to lose, to work as a team together,
to be able to grow and improve their personal skills and help others. It is
something that if we can do anything we can to help athletics and help
education, because athletics should be a part of the education process. And at
Pepsi, our schools had their financial troubles, as you know, and trying to find
funds to fund the student body activities. They could get around and fund the
academic stuff but when it came time to giving some of the kids and the students
the full experience of student body activity, athletics, events and musical
events and stuff, they needed funds to do this for trips, for debate, for a lot
of these things. And so I had a lot of friends that were principals in education
and they shared with me the financial needs. And so at Pepsi we said let's get
in and see how we can help. [laughter]
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Score boards in the valley there was not a scoreboard put
up at a track area or football without >>Bud Richter and I can recall you
vividly out at Clovis changing, here you're one of the top brass with Pepsi-Cola
and you're out there helping the parent Booster's club change the Pepsi tanks
when they were empty so you really got involved in more ways than one with the
community.
>>Bud Richter: Well really it's important to serve that community. The
community’s been very good to us and we tried to do everything we could to help
the school systems throughout the valley here, generate some funds to be able to
support other student body activities.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: 1949 Fresno has really changed and you've seen many of the
changes. What are some of the more dramatic changes that you've seen since you
first came to Fresno and as we look at Fresno today and what are some of those
challenges that the changes, that you've seen, that the future generations are
gonna have to deal with? So let's sort of reflect a little bit upon the past in
the Fresno you were raised in and did business in and now the Fresno today.
>>Bud Richter: Well Jan and I were basically, I was born right here. Jan was
born in Corcoran and came here at five years of age. There was about 20-25,000
people in Fresno at that time, something like that. And we could go downtown and
we'd know people and know a lot of people and the high school, Fresno High
School, Edison, Fresno Tech and Roosevelt, those were the high schools. I mean
how great that was to know students at all these schools and have friends there,
participate in athletics, debates and various other activities. And you knew
people, you knew our people. And at that time our racial makeup was totally
different than it is today. We used to go on the airplane in the 50's and 60's
and couldn't help but know somebody, one, two, three, four, five people on every
airplane flight. Today I get on an airplane, [laughter] holding 200 people
headed for Dallas and don't know anybody. It's just so different in the vastness
that's here. And through education, through John Welty, through the School of
Education, I've learned really to really respect and appreciate our diversity.
And to learn that there's a great richness in this diversity which brings great
opportunity but also with it, a lot of responsibility. And so I see great
changes in that over my lifespan here. And hopefully the university, it trained
75 percent, Fresno State University trained 75 percent of our teachers and
administrators. We're having a doctoral program out there where we're going to
be able to train more doctors in education that they will continue to keep
finding ways to help improve education and to help this ethnic and diversity
become more and more a real benefit.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So many of us have been the beneficiaries of the efforts
of people such as you, the Smittcamps. You can go back and look at the stadiums,
the theatres, because of the vision of leadership of the Richters and the
Smittcamps and the Hallowells, etcetera. Do you think that this community as it
faces new challenge, people are concerned about the quality of the air, the
growth, the healthcare, do you think that this community will develop leaders,
like in the past, to meet these new challenges?
>>Bud Richter: They must. In my opinion, they must. And the very fact of this
Leon S. Peters Award, establishing that family, he and Alice and Pete, and that
whole family as a role model for other families to follow, in showing that
family’s legacy, each year to a number of people in this area. The media is very
wonderful about sharing that story. That it will hopefully give guidance and
inspire others to want to go ahead and be servant leaders like the Peters
family. And, Fresno is going to continue to grow. We're centrally located.
Doctor Welty calls us the New California, in here as the state moves more
eastward towards our area and we do have to be concerned with the quality of our
environment, the quality of our community, our fire, our police protection, our
education system and I think the good Lord seems to provide for those who want
to work. We ought to pray like it all depended on God but work like it all
depended on us. And you put that combination together and I would hope and pray
that this community will continue to be a quality place to live. We certainly
live geographically in a great place and more and more people will understand
that and respect it and no doubt come here. Think about what it's gonna be like
in 2100? I mean the population of what it will be here. And I would hope that
with Fresno State, the University of California up in Merced, the university in
Bakersfield, that kind of upper graduate education will continue to inspire us
to have more, a greater and greater percentage of people being educated. And I
think our future depends on the education of our population. Would you agree?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Oh absolutely. I was looking at your tie and it certainly
says a great deal, when you think of Fresno State, which I still call it Fresno
State.
>>Bud Richter: Me too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I'm a proud graduate, you think of who has been some of
the biggest yell leaders for the university and clearly whether it's Bob Duncan
or >>Bud Richter, you really have championed, not just education but Fresno
State overall. What is this? You went to Stanford.
>>Bud Richter: Yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And so maybe a little bit of the red comes in there but
you really have been a champion and a supporter. I know the School of Education,
not only with its current facilities but the scholarship you give to the
faculty, which is the Richter scholarship, which is a very coveted award. Why
that tie, why that tie with Fresno State? Even though your wife, I think,
graduated with Fresno State.
>>Bud Richter: Yeah, Jan's an alumnus, Jan's an alumnus but well you know
[laughter] I wore this tie purposely today because that bulldog spirit, as old
Jim Sweeney would say, is very special. But I think Fresno State is the chief
education center. It contains great hope for this whole central valley and how
they relate. I'm real proud of the way the last three presidents have connected
the faculty and administration in this community. It wasn't always like that.
People in this community used to say, well they're sort of aloof over there and
they'd do their thing and they let the community do theirs. They don't want to
intermix. That's not the case anymore. You, I mean we really have to be pleased
that the University leaderships through Baxter and Haak and Welty have said,
look it, we're a part of this community. We've got to take some leadership
responsibilities and we're gonna do it. And they are doin’ it. And the new
library that's coming in here is going to be available to this valley. And so
the bulldog spirit, when we built that stadium out there on campus, was one of
the purposes of that 10-member committee, of which Leon was basically the chair,
one of the three co-chairs, was to tie the community and the campus together and
to go ahead and make it possible for families to go out there on tailgates. And
little kids would go out there and see that Fresno State campus and see the
quality of academics and athletics and grow into that feeling and environment
and spirit that those kids want to come to Fresno State.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You know in tennis and golf we talk about the grand slam,
if you win the U.S. Open, the British Open. In Fresno there is an equivalency in
terms of some of the top, top awards and when I told people that I was going to
be interviewing you they said, Bud Richter, he's a Leon S. Peters recipient so I
said he's been about everything else. So this is, and even though you do not
come at these things, you do not seek them, that's probably why you're the
recipient of them is you don't. You just do what you want to do for the good of
the community. But now the sort of the crown jewel in the accomplishments of
>>Bud Richter and his family, what did it mean? You knew Leon S. Peters. You
knew Alice. You've been an integral part of our community. The final analysis,
what did it mean to you personally to be the recipient of the Leon S. Peters
Award for 2006?
>>Bud Richter: I never expected it. I mean we sold our business in 1977 and most
of your recipients are related businesswise. And while we contributed, I think,
significantly at Pepsi, when we sold our business we just did it then as
individuals thereafter and the link of business was not there. And I served with
Leon on the Community Hospital Board of Trustees and I found him to be an
inspiring leader. He was a good listener. He sought diversity of opinion. He
made himself vulnerable to others in that he spoke what he thought was truth.
Truth was a part of his legacy, integrity, honesty and serving under him was
always a learning experience, and yet he wasn't teaching. He was just being
himself. And what kind of a better teacher can you have? And then I served with
him on the Foundation board, the business school advisory board and served with
him a number of years in a number of boards and so he was a special mentor to
me. He gave me varied duties that were significant. He expected me [laughter] to
complete them. And the good Lord willing, I think we did most of them and but he
was such a mentor to so many in this community and I was privileged to be one of
them. And so his gracious generosity, he and Alice and the family, through
themselves and their foundation after his passing, has set role models and
examples, I think for, any family should be very proud to have even a part of
that kind of a legacy in their life. And so to be chosen and recognized very
surprisingly and for doing something we just think is automatic because the way
we were raised by do unto others as you have them do unto you, we can't keep
taking out of the community pot without putting back in, it's a surprise. And
you wonder why are we awarded? This is something everybody should be doing.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well when you look at the past inductees, the Larry
Shehadeys, Earl Smittcamps, Helen Smades, the Bob Duncans, as a person growing
up in our community, I think the richness is that the Bud Richters have served
as mentors for many of the youth in our community who then feel that we've
watched and we've seen what you've contributed to the community and you've said
role models. And I know you feel uncomfortable when people give you compliments
because you're always the first to defer to both Jan and to your Lord and Savior
but that's >>Bud Richter. So I'd just like to say, Bud, on behalf of the greater
Fresno Chamber of Commerce, they could not have picked anybody more deserving of
this incredible award, the Leon S. Peters Award, than >>Bud Richter. So our
congratulations and I know that with you you'll continue. Until the day you go
on to other things, you'll contribute to the community. So congratulations on a
well deserved award.
>>Bud Richter: Thank you. Jan and I are very humbled and thank you and the
community and the Chamber for this very outstanding recognition of a family that
meant so much to us and to this community.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Anything I should have asked that I didn't ask that you
[laughter] want to add to, ‘cause I always go through -- that you can think of?
’Cause I know you never leave anything to chance. [laughter] Buddy Richter
leaves no stone unturned. But I wanted to cover a little bit about your family.
I wanted to cover a little bit above the award itself and you're very
[inaudible]
>>Bud Richter: I didn't get a chance to say I've had many people help me in my
mentoring. And mention about Leon Peters being really an outstanding mentor to
me but I've, Jan and I have both been blessed by a number of great, fine,
community people that have helped mentor me. So accepting this kind of
recognition is only done when I represent the team that helped me build and
create the values that we seem to have and try to live out. And there's a number
of these people. And I don't know whether I should attempt to name them but
certainly the Lou Herwaldts and the Bob Duncans and the, I mean yourself, we
have you see John Welty and Bob Oliver and Pat Ogle. The coaches, Hal Beatty.
you know, what a wonderful, Cecil Coleman, was he your coach, Cecil Coleman?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yes, I played for Cecil.
>>Bud Richter: And I mean you can't be around these quality kind of people
without some of it rubbing off. And these were all and are great teachers too.
And so I mean there's a number, I have probably got 40, 50 of these people that
we've had a chance to work with, associate with. The employees at Pepsi, wow,
what a great group. And I think we have to acknowledge that while we invested
heavily in this community at Pepsi, wanting to say thank you to us when we've
been there for 80 years in business with them, in gratitude. We have now the
Pepsi-Cola Company that is owned by the stockholders throughout the world and
based in New York and they continue to contribute significantly to this
community, such as the $40 million for the Save Mart Center. That isn't done
everywhere. But I think the kind of pattern and belief system that we had that
education was critically important, they have continued to follow and I am real
pleased and humbled and proud that they have continued to serve this community
the way they have. Jan and I had three areas that we wanted to give. We talked
about it early on that we had, we're the kind of people that we felt we had to
go ahead and raise a family and we had to make a living and the other one, we
had to serve. We wouldn't be happy just being takers. We had to serve and to
give and so we chose three areas to give in and that was education, healthcare
and in our spiritual life and to help that and foster that with others. And so
those were the three areas that we have chosen to serve because you can't serve
everything and so we've been blessed in that service. Jan and I have so much to
be thankful for. And our many friends over the years, our family has been super
to us. They've been mentors from my great, my grandma who was left with five
kids, the last one even in her womb when her husband died. Working with very
meager means. Ending up with two children graduating from Stanford, one from
Cal. My mother going to school here in was Heald College, I think, the Four C's
College in those days. Went to work at the Routt Lumber Company, an old lumber
company here. Married my dad and we have a great heritage. My grandfather came
here in 1895 with railcar with box and bottles and cases and some machinery,
coming down here, opened up a little bottling house, I guess you'd say on
Mariposa Street between Van Ness and Fulton Street. I think wheeling on a
wheelbarrow, initially soft drinks and beer and contributing to the community at
those times. We've just been really blessed with the heritage and there's no
other way to live without saying thank you so I thank you again for this.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well being the teacher that I am, I have to give you
grades on those three areas. [laughter] And so you get A+ on all of those, Bud
Richter. Congratulations.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
S. Peters recipient. You know, Bud, every time I turn around, Bud Richter and
his wife are being acknowledged by our community. If it isn't for your induction
into the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame, it's for your contribution to Fresno
State, whether it's the School of Education and it's just not by happenstance
that you were selected by the Leon S. Peters recipient for 2006. Clearly I know
what makes this so special to you that you knew, not only knew Leon S. Peters,
you worked very closely to him, with him on a number of community wide projects.
Why don't we just begin? How did you know Leon S. Peters and how did you become
involved with Leon?
>>Bud Richter: Well I first remember meeting, he, Leon and Pete Peters, in the
alley behind the old Richter bottling company in 1949, 1950. I just was fresh
out of college, graduated from college and came home and my wife and I came here
to Fresno and we entered the family business. And we were on Mono and Broadway
and the Valley Foundry was right across the alley on H Street. And here's a
little kid, you know 23, 24 years old, just out of college, wet behind the ears
and every once in a while I'd see Leon or Pete out in the alley there and they
were always kind, smiling, friendly, warm and had time to say hi. And our
businesses both grew there to where we each had to leave the downtown Fresno
area but that's how I first got to know Leon and Pete Peters.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: We all know that Leon Peters was probably one of the most
successful businessmen that you use as an indicator of success. But Leon, as you
well know, this award that the chamber gives in his honor is much more than
being a successful businessman. There's other awards for that but it was for his
community philanthropy and his giving to our community. How did >>Bud Richter
get involved? It is clearly when people mention the top people in our community
who have given so much, the Hallowells, the Leon S. Peters, the >>Bud Richter
name is amongst them. Was this a family inherited trait? How did you get into
the putting back into your community? Cause clearly on the bottom line business
it's not one of the criteria for many successful business people but how did
>>Bud Richter get involved with philanthropy and community organization and why?
>>Bud Richter: Pete, the way, again, I was raised, one of the basic rules that
we were reared by was you should follow our good Lord Jesus commandment, do unto
others as you would have them do unto you. And others are our neighbor and our
community. And the other one was, you just can't keep taking out of the family
pot or the community pot or the education pot without putting something back in.
Otherwise there's nothing left for those that are gonna follow someday. And so
to me it's just something that's natural to say thank you. For over 100 years
this community has blessed our family and we have so much to be thankful for.
And I've heard Leon Peters say the very same thing. This community has blessed
us and we just have to say thank you and being able to give in any way our
talents, time or treasure can enable that, we should do it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: If you were to give advice to say a young business major
out at Cal State, Fresno, who wants to be a millionaire by the age of 22. So
much today is about corporations and the bottom line. What advice would you give
him about, or her, about getting involved with the community and how to be a
successful businessman? Cause clearly, clearly you look at your success as a
business person, you and your dad and what you've built for the community but
your reputation has really been built on giving to the community. What advice
would you give them?
>>Bud Richter: First of all, I think, a young college student, I would think
that you don't measure richness in the income you have. You measure richness in
the quality of your life that you have with family, with friends, with spiritual
values, with community and that comes about by sharing with others and being
concerned for others and caring for others, and again, doing unto others as you
would have them do unto you. People have been so kind to Jan and me and my
mother and father and my grandfather, grandmother, over the years that you just
can't help say thank you and say how can we somehow return our respect and
appreciation for what you've given us?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Faith, I was gonna say, excuse me, faith and family is
another thing that you associate the Richter family with. Faith, you've never
been one to go out and preach the gospel but you've lived the gospel, if you
will. When did faith become so important and an integral part of who you were?
>>Bud Richter: Mom raised my brother, King, and I to, we had scriptural readings
every morning before school. And it was just something that we, it was habit and
we learned how to pray and we learned how to respect God and to be thankful and
to somehow try and share the grace that God gives to us with others. So that
started from a very young age. And then when we was in the service, U.S. Navy
and came out of there and was in college and came back, that was in 1949 we came
back from college and we sort of got a little bit away from going to church,
working and being active and trying to establish, get a home established and
things like that, our family. But the church always played a part. And then in
1962 Billy Graham came to town and there were a lot of things happening in our
lives and as Billy preached, I was one of those, I don't know, 5, 10,000 people
at the Radcliff Stadium, that walked up there and laid out my life for him as
Lord and Savior and it's been a growing experience ever since, one I would never
change at all.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When Billy Graham came back to Fresno, who was leading the
charge? Was >>Bud Richter right there again, with the organization committee.
>>Bud Richter: We had 5,000 volunteers it seems like and Lou Herwaldt and many
others, G.L. Johnson and it was a wonderful experience and you were involved in
that as well. But walking the faith is something we try to do. We're not
perfect. No one is perfect but we do the best we can, we ask for forgiveness and
keep trying.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I don't think there’s been a time where I have been
privileged to watch you be a recipient of an award that you've ever, ever failed
not to mention, you've always mentioned Jan, your partner, and your faith. Let's
talk about your partner because you always attribute so much gracious credit to
her. How long have you and Jan been married and she really has been your partner
in more ways than one, hasn't she?
>>Bud Richter: On November 13th, 1943, I invited Jan to go to hear the Andrew
sisters at the old Memorial Auditorium here in Fresno. And after that event, I
asked her to go steady and she said yes. So here it was November 1943 through
January 2006 we've been going steady [laughter], some 62 years. And we've been
married 58, almost 59 years. And she's a mentor to me, maybe my number one
mentor. And while she may be look a little bit frail and slender, in her stature
I can assure you that she's got a lot of strength. And if I say Jan what do you
think about doing something like this? And she puts her hand on my shoulder and
says, no Bud, you're not gonna do it. [laughter] And you know what? We’re not
gonna do it because we've been together all the way through and so we've had a
chance to raise one son and a granddaughter, partially, with being grandparents,
which is a great attribute of being a family member. You know that? And
grandparents have a special place in life and so we've tried to fulfill that
role. But she and I, we retired in 1977 when we sold Pepsi and from that time we
sort of left the business for a little bit, involved with banking some, and been
trying to live each day and enjoy each day and give to the community as well as
take a little time for ourselves.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well it looks like after 62 years this might work out
okay. [laughter] You'll be together for a while.
>>Bud Richter: Yep, yep we're very grateful and she helped lead me to Christ
too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well you know it's interesting when you mention Pepsi
cause so many of us, the times we were young and considered ourselves athletes
at Fresno State so many of us had the privilege of working for Pepsi-Cola
Bottling Company for you and your dad. I can remember your dad vividly at the
plant and you. And again, there was nothing that compelled the Richters to hire
Fresno State student athletes, what was the motivation? Clearly the working
experience that so many of us got at Pepsi was more than just a job, again
giving to the community.
>>Bud Richter: Athletics is a great institution and it means so much in the
growing up process for a lot of young women and men. And the coaching of
athletics is so important. And my experience has been over the years that
coaches make outstanding administrators, teachers, ’cause they understand kids.
They know how, they teach them how to win, to lose, to work as a team together,
to be able to grow and improve their personal skills and help others. It is
something that if we can do anything we can to help athletics and help
education, because athletics should be a part of the education process. And at
Pepsi, our schools had their financial troubles, as you know, and trying to find
funds to fund the student body activities. They could get around and fund the
academic stuff but when it came time to giving some of the kids and the students
the full experience of student body activity, athletics, events and musical
events and stuff, they needed funds to do this for trips, for debate, for a lot
of these things. And so I had a lot of friends that were principals in education
and they shared with me the financial needs. And so at Pepsi we said let's get
in and see how we can help. [laughter]
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Score boards in the valley there was not a scoreboard put
up at a track area or football without >>Bud Richter and I can recall you
vividly out at Clovis changing, here you're one of the top brass with Pepsi-Cola
and you're out there helping the parent Booster's club change the Pepsi tanks
when they were empty so you really got involved in more ways than one with the
community.
>>Bud Richter: Well really it's important to serve that community. The
community’s been very good to us and we tried to do everything we could to help
the school systems throughout the valley here, generate some funds to be able to
support other student body activities.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: 1949 Fresno has really changed and you've seen many of the
changes. What are some of the more dramatic changes that you've seen since you
first came to Fresno and as we look at Fresno today and what are some of those
challenges that the changes, that you've seen, that the future generations are
gonna have to deal with? So let's sort of reflect a little bit upon the past in
the Fresno you were raised in and did business in and now the Fresno today.
>>Bud Richter: Well Jan and I were basically, I was born right here. Jan was
born in Corcoran and came here at five years of age. There was about 20-25,000
people in Fresno at that time, something like that. And we could go downtown and
we'd know people and know a lot of people and the high school, Fresno High
School, Edison, Fresno Tech and Roosevelt, those were the high schools. I mean
how great that was to know students at all these schools and have friends there,
participate in athletics, debates and various other activities. And you knew
people, you knew our people. And at that time our racial makeup was totally
different than it is today. We used to go on the airplane in the 50's and 60's
and couldn't help but know somebody, one, two, three, four, five people on every
airplane flight. Today I get on an airplane, [laughter] holding 200 people
headed for Dallas and don't know anybody. It's just so different in the vastness
that's here. And through education, through John Welty, through the School of
Education, I've learned really to really respect and appreciate our diversity.
And to learn that there's a great richness in this diversity which brings great
opportunity but also with it, a lot of responsibility. And so I see great
changes in that over my lifespan here. And hopefully the university, it trained
75 percent, Fresno State University trained 75 percent of our teachers and
administrators. We're having a doctoral program out there where we're going to
be able to train more doctors in education that they will continue to keep
finding ways to help improve education and to help this ethnic and diversity
become more and more a real benefit.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So many of us have been the beneficiaries of the efforts
of people such as you, the Smittcamps. You can go back and look at the stadiums,
the theatres, because of the vision of leadership of the Richters and the
Smittcamps and the Hallowells, etcetera. Do you think that this community as it
faces new challenge, people are concerned about the quality of the air, the
growth, the healthcare, do you think that this community will develop leaders,
like in the past, to meet these new challenges?
>>Bud Richter: They must. In my opinion, they must. And the very fact of this
Leon S. Peters Award, establishing that family, he and Alice and Pete, and that
whole family as a role model for other families to follow, in showing that
family’s legacy, each year to a number of people in this area. The media is very
wonderful about sharing that story. That it will hopefully give guidance and
inspire others to want to go ahead and be servant leaders like the Peters
family. And, Fresno is going to continue to grow. We're centrally located.
Doctor Welty calls us the New California, in here as the state moves more
eastward towards our area and we do have to be concerned with the quality of our
environment, the quality of our community, our fire, our police protection, our
education system and I think the good Lord seems to provide for those who want
to work. We ought to pray like it all depended on God but work like it all
depended on us. And you put that combination together and I would hope and pray
that this community will continue to be a quality place to live. We certainly
live geographically in a great place and more and more people will understand
that and respect it and no doubt come here. Think about what it's gonna be like
in 2100? I mean the population of what it will be here. And I would hope that
with Fresno State, the University of California up in Merced, the university in
Bakersfield, that kind of upper graduate education will continue to inspire us
to have more, a greater and greater percentage of people being educated. And I
think our future depends on the education of our population. Would you agree?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Oh absolutely. I was looking at your tie and it certainly
says a great deal, when you think of Fresno State, which I still call it Fresno
State.
>>Bud Richter: Me too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I'm a proud graduate, you think of who has been some of
the biggest yell leaders for the university and clearly whether it's Bob Duncan
or >>Bud Richter, you really have championed, not just education but Fresno
State overall. What is this? You went to Stanford.
>>Bud Richter: Yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And so maybe a little bit of the red comes in there but
you really have been a champion and a supporter. I know the School of Education,
not only with its current facilities but the scholarship you give to the
faculty, which is the Richter scholarship, which is a very coveted award. Why
that tie, why that tie with Fresno State? Even though your wife, I think,
graduated with Fresno State.
>>Bud Richter: Yeah, Jan's an alumnus, Jan's an alumnus but well you know
[laughter] I wore this tie purposely today because that bulldog spirit, as old
Jim Sweeney would say, is very special. But I think Fresno State is the chief
education center. It contains great hope for this whole central valley and how
they relate. I'm real proud of the way the last three presidents have connected
the faculty and administration in this community. It wasn't always like that.
People in this community used to say, well they're sort of aloof over there and
they'd do their thing and they let the community do theirs. They don't want to
intermix. That's not the case anymore. You, I mean we really have to be pleased
that the University leaderships through Baxter and Haak and Welty have said,
look it, we're a part of this community. We've got to take some leadership
responsibilities and we're gonna do it. And they are doin’ it. And the new
library that's coming in here is going to be available to this valley. And so
the bulldog spirit, when we built that stadium out there on campus, was one of
the purposes of that 10-member committee, of which Leon was basically the chair,
one of the three co-chairs, was to tie the community and the campus together and
to go ahead and make it possible for families to go out there on tailgates. And
little kids would go out there and see that Fresno State campus and see the
quality of academics and athletics and grow into that feeling and environment
and spirit that those kids want to come to Fresno State.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You know in tennis and golf we talk about the grand slam,
if you win the U.S. Open, the British Open. In Fresno there is an equivalency in
terms of some of the top, top awards and when I told people that I was going to
be interviewing you they said, Bud Richter, he's a Leon S. Peters recipient so I
said he's been about everything else. So this is, and even though you do not
come at these things, you do not seek them, that's probably why you're the
recipient of them is you don't. You just do what you want to do for the good of
the community. But now the sort of the crown jewel in the accomplishments of
>>Bud Richter and his family, what did it mean? You knew Leon S. Peters. You
knew Alice. You've been an integral part of our community. The final analysis,
what did it mean to you personally to be the recipient of the Leon S. Peters
Award for 2006?
>>Bud Richter: I never expected it. I mean we sold our business in 1977 and most
of your recipients are related businesswise. And while we contributed, I think,
significantly at Pepsi, when we sold our business we just did it then as
individuals thereafter and the link of business was not there. And I served with
Leon on the Community Hospital Board of Trustees and I found him to be an
inspiring leader. He was a good listener. He sought diversity of opinion. He
made himself vulnerable to others in that he spoke what he thought was truth.
Truth was a part of his legacy, integrity, honesty and serving under him was
always a learning experience, and yet he wasn't teaching. He was just being
himself. And what kind of a better teacher can you have? And then I served with
him on the Foundation board, the business school advisory board and served with
him a number of years in a number of boards and so he was a special mentor to
me. He gave me varied duties that were significant. He expected me [laughter] to
complete them. And the good Lord willing, I think we did most of them and but he
was such a mentor to so many in this community and I was privileged to be one of
them. And so his gracious generosity, he and Alice and the family, through
themselves and their foundation after his passing, has set role models and
examples, I think for, any family should be very proud to have even a part of
that kind of a legacy in their life. And so to be chosen and recognized very
surprisingly and for doing something we just think is automatic because the way
we were raised by do unto others as you have them do unto you, we can't keep
taking out of the community pot without putting back in, it's a surprise. And
you wonder why are we awarded? This is something everybody should be doing.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well when you look at the past inductees, the Larry
Shehadeys, Earl Smittcamps, Helen Smades, the Bob Duncans, as a person growing
up in our community, I think the richness is that the Bud Richters have served
as mentors for many of the youth in our community who then feel that we've
watched and we've seen what you've contributed to the community and you've said
role models. And I know you feel uncomfortable when people give you compliments
because you're always the first to defer to both Jan and to your Lord and Savior
but that's >>Bud Richter. So I'd just like to say, Bud, on behalf of the greater
Fresno Chamber of Commerce, they could not have picked anybody more deserving of
this incredible award, the Leon S. Peters Award, than >>Bud Richter. So our
congratulations and I know that with you you'll continue. Until the day you go
on to other things, you'll contribute to the community. So congratulations on a
well deserved award.
>>Bud Richter: Thank you. Jan and I are very humbled and thank you and the
community and the Chamber for this very outstanding recognition of a family that
meant so much to us and to this community.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Anything I should have asked that I didn't ask that you
[laughter] want to add to, ‘cause I always go through -- that you can think of?
’Cause I know you never leave anything to chance. [laughter] Buddy Richter
leaves no stone unturned. But I wanted to cover a little bit about your family.
I wanted to cover a little bit above the award itself and you're very
[inaudible]
>>Bud Richter: I didn't get a chance to say I've had many people help me in my
mentoring. And mention about Leon Peters being really an outstanding mentor to
me but I've, Jan and I have both been blessed by a number of great, fine,
community people that have helped mentor me. So accepting this kind of
recognition is only done when I represent the team that helped me build and
create the values that we seem to have and try to live out. And there's a number
of these people. And I don't know whether I should attempt to name them but
certainly the Lou Herwaldts and the Bob Duncans and the, I mean yourself, we
have you see John Welty and Bob Oliver and Pat Ogle. The coaches, Hal Beatty.
you know, what a wonderful, Cecil Coleman, was he your coach, Cecil Coleman?
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yes, I played for Cecil.
>>Bud Richter: And I mean you can't be around these quality kind of people
without some of it rubbing off. And these were all and are great teachers too.
And so I mean there's a number, I have probably got 40, 50 of these people that
we've had a chance to work with, associate with. The employees at Pepsi, wow,
what a great group. And I think we have to acknowledge that while we invested
heavily in this community at Pepsi, wanting to say thank you to us when we've
been there for 80 years in business with them, in gratitude. We have now the
Pepsi-Cola Company that is owned by the stockholders throughout the world and
based in New York and they continue to contribute significantly to this
community, such as the $40 million for the Save Mart Center. That isn't done
everywhere. But I think the kind of pattern and belief system that we had that
education was critically important, they have continued to follow and I am real
pleased and humbled and proud that they have continued to serve this community
the way they have. Jan and I had three areas that we wanted to give. We talked
about it early on that we had, we're the kind of people that we felt we had to
go ahead and raise a family and we had to make a living and the other one, we
had to serve. We wouldn't be happy just being takers. We had to serve and to
give and so we chose three areas to give in and that was education, healthcare
and in our spiritual life and to help that and foster that with others. And so
those were the three areas that we have chosen to serve because you can't serve
everything and so we've been blessed in that service. Jan and I have so much to
be thankful for. And our many friends over the years, our family has been super
to us. They've been mentors from my great, my grandma who was left with five
kids, the last one even in her womb when her husband died. Working with very
meager means. Ending up with two children graduating from Stanford, one from
Cal. My mother going to school here in was Heald College, I think, the Four C's
College in those days. Went to work at the Routt Lumber Company, an old lumber
company here. Married my dad and we have a great heritage. My grandfather came
here in 1895 with railcar with box and bottles and cases and some machinery,
coming down here, opened up a little bottling house, I guess you'd say on
Mariposa Street between Van Ness and Fulton Street. I think wheeling on a
wheelbarrow, initially soft drinks and beer and contributing to the community at
those times. We've just been really blessed with the heritage and there's no
other way to live without saying thank you so I thank you again for this.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well being the teacher that I am, I have to give you
grades on those three areas. [laughter] And so you get A+ on all of those, Bud
Richter. Congratulations.
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====