里奇特家族欢迎和校友中心to cement late alumnus Kirk Richter’s legacy of connection, care
柯克·里希特（Kirk Richter）（中心）是一位充满爱心的丈夫，父亲和祖父（后排，左起）女儿劳拉·里希特（Laura Richter），妻子莫琳·里希特（Maureen Richter），儿子丹尼尔·里希特（Daniel Richter），daughter妇凯尔西·莱蒂宁·里奇（Kelsey Laitinen-Richter）和孙子（前排，左起）朱利安·莱蒂宁（Julian Laitinen-Richter），艾比·沙梅尔（Abby Schamel），贝拉·沙梅尔（Bella Schamel）和利亚姆·莱蒂宁·里奇特（Liam Laitinen-Richter）。他在母校UMSL的心中也有一个特殊的位置，在那里他担任UMSL校友会主席和UMSL商业校友分会，并且是总理理事会的成员。（照片由里奇特家族提供）
柯克·里希特（Kirk Richter）在必威是大平台吗密苏里大学–ST。路易campus last August.
他和他的妻子莫琳见面Chancellor Kristin Sobolik对于四边形的野餐午餐 - 对于虔诚的校友夫妇来说，这并不是异常的情况，他们经常讨论他们可以支持并继续改变母校和学生生活的方式。
On this particular day, they made their way to the west side of theJ.C. Penney会议中心，到面对校友圈的礼堂的无窗外部。在那里，索博里克开始描述当时只有一个想法 - 世界一流的欢迎和校友中心的可能性。
There, in the summer sun, the typically quiet, humble man who was not usually so quick to reveal his emotions, lit up.
“He stood there in front of a blank, brick wall and went, ‘That’s it! That’s what I want!’” Maureen says. “He was so excited.”
The Richter Family Welcome and Alumni Center will serve as a new front door to the university when it is built adjacent to the J.C. Penney Conference Center and facing Alumni Circle. (Rendering courtesy of Lamar Johnson Collaborative)
In hindsight, such a full-circle moment of clarity made perfect sense for the 1968College of Business Administration直接知道这样一个中心可以提供什么的研究生：
Connection. And a chance to give back.
当柯克从1964年毕业后，UMSL处于起步阶段博蒙特高中在北圣路易斯。
“I don’t know what other options were available to him at the time,” son Daniel says of his father’s prospects and decision to attend.
柯克（Kirk）在一个工人阶级的德国新教家庭，两个儿子的长者中长大，父亲为铁路工作。就像会追随他的UMSL学生一样，他是他的家庭中的第一个上大学的成员，而获得学位的人很容易成为一个梦想，即使不是因为他自己的决心和愿意抓住机会的精神他在哪里找到它。
从一开始就以职业为导向，柯克想开始会计。
“The man loved numbers,” Maureen says. “He loved anything to do with numbers and accounting. It was fun for him.”
校友莫琳（Maureen）和柯克·里希特（Kirk Richter）去年夏天与克里斯汀·索博里克（Kristin Sobolik）总理一起访问了四轮摩托运。（照片由沙龙·芬诺利奥（Sharon Fenoglio）提供）
柯克对他的课程非常确定，他请愿Emery Turner，，，，the founding dean of the College of Business Administration, to take accounting his first semester – something still not typically allowed for first-year students.
“埃默里允许他这样做。”戴夫·甘兹（Dave Ganz），，，，who joined the faculty during Richter’s student years, recalls. “He was one of the people who got to take accounting as a freshman. He was focused, and he obviously stayed with it.”
Kirk graduated as a member of UMSL’s second class in 1968, swiftly landing a job with Arthur Andersen and officially becoming a CPA in 1972. That same year, he married his first wife,凯瑟琳。
Six years later, his family had grown with the welcome addition of daughter, Laura, and son, Daniel. Kirk took a job atSigma-Aldrich，，，，a St. Louis-based chemical, life science and biotechnology company. For 34 years, his trademark perseverance and devotion kept him committed to the company. By the time he retired as interim chief financial officer in 2012, he had helped Sigma-Aldrich’s annual sales soar from $30 million to $2.5 billion.
Throughout his entire life, Kirk’s loyalty to UMSL was unwavering. He was forever grateful for the connections the university helped him forge. He never forgot his humble beginnings that led to sharable success.
“It’s critical that current and future students be given the opportunity to get the same quality education that I did at UMSL,”Kirk said in 2013。
校友Maureen and Kirk Richter accepted the Lee Medal at the 2017 Founders Dinner. (Photo by August Jennewein)
To that very goal he invested countless personal hours – as president of theUMSL校友会，，，，member and multi-term president of the商业校友分会and member of theChancellor’s Council– all while steadfastly believing in the power of possibility and the potential of others.
劳拉（Laura）和丹尼尔（Daniel）亲切地记得柯克（Kirk）在晚餐后热切出去参加组织会议或代表大学活动的活动。
“我父亲有几个不同的组织，在他的生活中发挥了重要作用，并帮助他到达了自己的进去；”劳拉谈到她的父亲，命名他的教堂，St. John’s UCC Manchester，以及他们中间的童子军。“ UMSL是最重要的。”
尽管他的承诺总是很认真，但这并不是全部工作。对于一个热爱数字的人来说，柯克在他同样爱别人的程度上可能很少见。
他为与校友交往的机会感到非常高兴。他是圣路易斯红雀队的狂热球迷，他期待与其他毕业生一起在佛罗里达州木星的春季训练之旅，在那里他会穿上UMSL装备，总是在大学中炫耀自己的骄傲。
多年来，一个非常信仰的人非常照顾那些塑造他的道路的人和地方，贡献的贡献远不止于他的时间。他向UMSL捐款，赞助奖学金，支持校友协会，并为建设做出贡献Anheuser-Busch Hall。
莫琳（Maureen）和柯克·里希特（Kirk Richter）（在左边）与UMSL校友协会和朋友（包括托尼·诺顿（Tony Naughton）和迈克·霍根（Mike Hogan））的朋友们定期进行春季训练之旅，以欢呼圣路易斯红雀队。一次旅行，他们遇到了总经理Mike Girsch（中心）。（照片由里奇特家族提供）
It was also Kirk who helped reintroduce Maureen – a 1974 graduate of the教育学院– to the university.
两人在2008年见面怜悯临终关怀丧亲计划每个人都为他们的第一个配偶的死亡而哀悼。他们与小组的其他成员一起吃午餐，UMSL是他们所学到的共同点之一。
他们甚至开始花更多的时间在一起tually were married, Kirk brought Maureen with him to different UMSL events.
“这真的很棒，”莫琳说，他在密苏里州阿诺德教授中学34年。“我对自己有点不高兴，以至于我以前从未参与其中，但是因为他是如此参与并认识很多人，所以认识所有这些人真的很有趣。”
柯克还致力于帮助其他UMSL毕业生重新连接。在2015年担任校友会主席期间，他在建立包容性会员模型that made each graduate a member of the association by virtue of their degree, rather than requiring them to pay dues.
劳拉说：“这可以追溯到人际关系。”“他想找到一种方法来帮助促进人们之间的联系。”
去年夏天，站在校友圈子旁边，正是一个可以做一个可以使他如此兴奋的空间的愿景。
The Richter Family Welcome and Alumni Center – as it will be called – will be a place to welcome students into the often-foreign world of higher education while simultaneously giving those who’ve already experienced its transformative power a place to return and give back.
It will be just as Kirk wanted it.
整个UMSL家庭将永远感激不尽。
柯克·里希特（Kirk Richter）于1月14日去世，，，，surrounded by the family and friends who loved him most – his last moments a beautiful testament to his belief in the transformative power of connection.
This story was originally published in the spring 2022 issue of UMSL Magazine. If you have a story idea for UMSL Magazine, emailmagazine@umsl.edu。
Short URL:https://blogs.umsl.edu/news/?p=93540
