Celebrating
MANUFACTURING
Excellence By The Editors
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Gilbert Richards, Jr., the founder of perennial MANNY winner Richards Industries, is the 2019 awardee of the MANNY Lifetime Achievement Award. Gilbert Richards, Jr. began his career on Wall Street. He worked for a leveraged buyout firm, which sent him to Cincinnati to gain practical experience with a new manufacturer the firm had acquired. Richards quickly realized the work setting—where nozzles, valves, fittings and couplings for the petroleum industry were produced—was a challenge he enjoyed far more than sitting behind a Wall Street desk. So he stayed and bought the company in 1961. Over the next 46 years, Richards grew the firm from six employees to an enterprise with nearly 200 workers. Under R icha rds’ leadersh ip, t he compa ny created a distribution organization, expanded the product line, acquired related companies and successfully entered the global market.
Gilbert Richards, Jr. • Founder, Richards Industries • Posthumous Award
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In the early years, when the company was small, Richards would go into the back door of industrial plants and sell directly to the maintenance people, selling one or two valves at a time. Over time, the company’s methods became more sophisticated, but Richards never lost his affinity for the personal touch. Richards’ commitment to his employees was demonstrated when, upon retirement, he sold the company to his employees. The move, not without risk, had been a longtime goal of Richards’ and it gave him great satisfaction. Richards supported organizations and events such as the Cincinnati Country Day School, Au lt Pa rk a nd t he May Festival. He was married to wife Mary for 49 years. Those who knew Richards well described him as a “no-nonsense” man. Yet a personal goal of Richards, who died in April 2017, was to live his life by making at least one person happy every day.