Emeritus Professor Still Helping to Build Public Education

Since retiring from Georgia Southern in 2001, Fred Richter has done quite a bit of traveling around the world.

It’s a passion he passes on to Georgia Southern students. Every year since his retirement, Richter has funded a scholarship for a University Honors student to study abroad.

“If I had a million dollars to invest in Georgia Southern, I would put it all into study abroad,” said Richter, who lives in Statesboro. “I don’t think anything has a more dramatic impact on students than to see the world through the lens of a culture other than their own.”

As with the students’ trips abroad, Richter’s aren’t just for fun. Many of them have been mission trips with his church, beginning with one to Belize where the group restored a rundown church. Richter has since gone to the Dominican Republic numerous times to help build churches and schools.

“The Episcopal church puts the highest priority on building churches and schools in the Dominican since public education is overloaded there,” Richter said. “Anywhere they build a church or school it will be immediately full to capacity.”

Richter has embraced the handyman role at his own church as well, giving his time to repair “anything that goes wrong.” He is also an active volunteer for the Georgia Southern Botanical Garden, where he recently built two new gates at one of the entrances.

“I wound up teaching, which was a wonderful life,” he said with a smile. “But I’m blue-collar underneath.”

A do-it-yourself project also led indirectly to another passion of his – yoga. After injuring his back while fixing his roof nine years ago, Richter took up yoga. Ever since, he has taken two yoga classes a week, and now teaches three classes a week as well.

Richter also continues to play a lot of tennis, a hobby he jokes helped bring him to Georgia Southern in 1969. He shared a love for the sport with Fielding Russell, then the head of the Department of English.

“He hired me despite my hippie look – probably because I played tennis and so did he,” Richter said. “I played with him until he was in his 70s.”

Just one year removed from graduate school when he was hired, Richter remained a fixture at Georgia Southern for 32 years. He taught English until 1998 when he was named the University’s assistant dean of undergraduate studies, enabling him to establish the University Honors Program and direct the First-Year Experience Program.

“That was a marvelous opportunity for me,” Richter said. “I had taught the Honors Seminar for years, so I thought that job had my name written all over it. I was overjoyed.”

Looking back on his early days, Richter recalls Georgia Southern being a “humble place with lots of generally humble people.” Richter continues to show that humility in his various altruistic efforts.
“I feel lucky,” he said. “Life is great.”