THE IMPACT OF PHILANTHROPY

Rich Ulmer with his mother Audrie.

Grateful Son Continues Mom’s Legacy

By Pete Worcester

When they were married, Audrie Gardam Ulmer ’41 told her husband Walter they would have a son and name him Richard, after Richard the Lionheart, a king of England in the 12th century. He would be born on her birthday, and they would raise him to be a leader.

Rich Ulmer made his mother proud, both in achieving her personal goals and in living a life dedicated to God, providing welfare and comfort for his family. In his successful pharmaceutical career, Rich helped develop multibillion dollar businesses over 27 years for Allergan. For the past 25 years, he has been CEO of Invitro International, a technology-driven provider of nonanimal testing technologies for eye and skin irritancy/corrosiveness.

Rich grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia with his mother, father and sister and attended Friends Central School in Wynnewood, Pa., for 12 years in the 1940s and 1950s. The Ulmers lived a modest life in multiple apartments, and his mom would say “don’t worry … we always have a home,” and it was filled with love and happy memories.

Audrie held a key administrative position at Friends’ Central for more than two decades, and raised Rich as a “Quaker kid,” based on values of fairness and integrity that he honors to this day. His fondness for Friends’ Central led Rich and Bev, his beloved late wife, to gift The Ulmer Family Light Lab in 2016, a makerspace educational facility dedicated to spurring creativity and innovative thinking for elementary students. “At an early age, they learn to work in teams and not ever be discouraged by failure.”

Rich and Bev’s love and loyalty for Guilford was borne out of Audrie’s life and college experience. Little did Rich know of the depth of her relationship with Guilford until the latter years of her life. Without his awareness, she had gifted much of her savings to Guilford through The Ulmer Family Scholarship. Rich’s learning of the scholarship “meant the world to me” and was one of his life’s most defining moments after she passed away on her 81st birthday (his 58th birthday as well).

Audrie Gardam '41 and Walter Ulmer on their 50th wedding anniversary.

From that day, Rich and Bev generously contributed to The Ulmer Family Scholarship to support students the way his mom always did. They wish to provide students with an opportunity to experience a life-changing liberal arts education built on values of purpose, goal-setting, love, loyalty and a diversity of opinion, all of which Guilford embraces and Rich firmly believes in. Describing himself as “fair, one who believes in hard work and making a contribution to something of value,” Rich says “the word ‘quit’ is not in my vocabulary.” He believes in the power of education, as well as the relationship building and critical thinking it fosters. Ultimately, he wishes to share his spiritual, educational and career fortunes to make liberal arts experiences affordable, and, he says, “this is why I want to help Guilford.”

To learn more about establishing an endowment or making a gift to an existing endowment, contact Ara Serjoie, Vice President for Advancement, at serjoiea@guilford.edu or 336.316.2320.