Richard Paul Kiphart ’63

Richard Paul Kiphart ’63 died September 10, 2016, at his home. An engineering science major at Dartmouth, Dick went on to earn an M.B.A. at Harvard Business School and then joined William Blair & Co., where he would spend the next 50 years involved in all aspects of financial services, with the single exception of two years spent with the U.S. Navy near Vietnam. After an exceptional career at William Blair, Dick went on to manage his personal investments with acumen and success. This success enabled him to engage in a significant number of philanthropic activities. These showed the breadth of his interests, as they ranged from music (board of the Lyric Opera and the Chicago Symphony), education (vice chair of Columbia College in Chicago) and, finally, and for him the most rewarding, international charities. Dick and his wife, Susie, sponsored and funded the establishment of water wells in more than 80 villages, 15 schools and healthcare programs in Ghana. With the same foresight that brought him success at William Blair, Dick understood that while the establishment of such programs is a worthwhile thing, something more was needed to ensure their continuation into the future. To create such sustainability, he acquired a 2,500-acre pineapple plantation in Ghana, the profit from which he dedicated to this end. Dick and Susie went to Ghana yearly for more than a decade to involve themselves directly in their charitable interests. Dick also served on the board of overseers for the Hopkins Center. His life was a balance between his work, sense of aesthetics and concern for his fellowman. He will be missed.