UWG News

by Gary Leftwich

Whenever Roy Richards Jr. talks about their father’s 1931 graduating class picture through the district that is fourth class, he views a lot more than smiling faces and educational regalia. He views hope—hope that stays as strong today in the University of western Georgia because it had been if the digital camera shutter snapped on that picture.

Roy Richards Jr.

“They had been farm guys and farm girls,” Richards—chairman of Southwire business , established by their dad, told a audience collected recently to commemorate the 50th anniversary of UWG’s company college plus the twentieth anniversary for the naming associated with Richards university of company .

“This organization had the capability to alter their everyday lives,” he added, attributing a lot of that capacity to Irvine S. Ingram, the school’s principal during the time. “He can find in individuals the capacity to go on to the following stations of the lives.”

Eighty-six years later on, that continues to be the priority that is top of Richards university.

“We are in the industry of changing life through training engagement and experiences,” stated Dr. Faye McIntyre, dean for the university. “We are dedicated to training the business enterprise leaders of the next day, if they remain here in Georgia or go to other areas around the globe.”

Growing up within the hamlet that is small of, of a dozen kilometers through the UWG campus, Roy Richards Sr. matured through the tough life associated with rural Southern throughout the Great Depression. Not really inside the teenagers, he began their first work cotton that is picking 10 cents on a daily basis, getting compensated every fourteen days.

Their paycheck that is first of5 funded the removal of a enamel that began aching right before payday.

Dr. Faye McIntyre

“Dad stated, ‘We had been poor. But, everybody else around us all ended up being bad, therefore we didn’t understand we had been bad,” Richards Jr. recalled.

The son of an entrepreneur that is“highly motivated” the elder Richards went their father’s saw mill, churning out lumber at age 10. At 14, he quit college to operate the company full-time, managing worker issues, payroll therefore the mill’s basic procedure.

One early morning, a person stopped during the mill, asking Richards Sr. where his daddy ended up being. The answer ended up being, “I don’t understand.” The man asked again where his father was after waiting for most of the workday.

“It ended up being he knew he had been performing a man’s work,” Richards Jr. said of their dad. “That helped him recognize just exactly what he could do.”

After that, Richards Sr. went to Berry university after which to your Fourth District A&M class. Ingram’s support directed their way to Georgia Tech, where he obtained a diploma in engineering.

Time for Carroll County, Richards Sr. began Southwire on an awesome march early morning in 1950 by having a dozen workers and three second-hand wire-making machines. Today, the business, nevertheless headquartered in Carrollton, employs some 7,500 individuals global and it is North America’s biggest cable and cable producer as well as the 3rd biggest on earth.

“I spent my youth within the shadow for this institution,” Richards click here to investigate Jr. stated. “This organization has filled our community with hope and possibility. The University of western Georgia is really a beacon of light, not only for greater learning, however for what exactly is feasible in well being, education and opportunity.”

Dr. Kyle Marrero

Together, Southwire in addition to Richards university of company developed the Southwire Sustainable company Honors Program , makes it possible for pupils to make both bachelor’s and master’s levels, along side a certification in sustainable company, in four years. Pupils work alongside business professionals on sustainability programs and developing company plans, that they provide to top leadership.

Richards said Southwire employs 90 pupil employees from UWG. About 325 employees—10 per cent associated with the company’s neighborhood base—are UWG alums.

“Our business wouldn’t normally have prospered without this organization and we also could maybe perhaps maybe not continue steadily to prosper with no partnership we share,” Richards Jr. stated.

Year founded in 1967 and led by Dr. Mark Miller, the Division of Business and Economic Studies conferred 64 degrees in its first. The MBA that is first was in 1971 therefore the unit became the western Georgia university class of company 2 yrs later on. The school was named in honor of Roy Richards Sr. in 1997 with support from the Richards family.

Just last year, the school conferred 545 levels, pushing its total to 15,123. Three quarters of teachers hold doctoral levels and all sorts of of the are active in research. That research has been cited by other people a lot more than 17,000 times.

Seeking to the long run, McIntyre and UWG President Kyle Marrero shared plans for the brand new building to house the faculty. The task continues to be when you look at the fundraising and design phases.

“This should be a house that brings all of us together,” McIntyre stated. “We have been around in two split structures for 14 years now and then we searching for ahead to presenting everybody else beneath the exact exact same roof.”

“This building could be the peak of continuing our legacy in to the future,” Marrero stated. “Somewhere around 2020ish, I will be in a position to have pupils enter those halls and carry on our legacy. I will be excited to construct together to discover where we are able to just just simply simply take ourselves later on.”