Richard T. Farmer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard "Dick" Farmer is an American businessman whose fortune is self made through his development of the Cintas Corporation. The company started out as his grandfather's industrial rag cleaning business but today is the leading corporate uniform provider company in the nation.
He worked for his grandfather in the family business through childhood, high school, and college where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing from Miami University (Ohio) in 1956. After graduation, he enjoyed a brief stint in the U.S. Marine Corp. and a short tour of duty before coming on full-time with the family business in 1957. It wasn't until 1968 that Farmer created a new company, an off shoot of his grandfather's business.
He turned Cintas around from a negative net worth of $34,000 into a Fortune 500 company with annual sales of $3 billion. Today Cintas is the largest provider of company uniforms working with clients like Delta Air Lines, DHL, NASCAR, Eli Lilly, and 500,000 other clients. Farmer currently is the Chairman of the Cintas Corporation and has served as a member and chair of the board of directors at Miami University. Forbes Magazine consistently rates Farmer among the richest people in the world.
He was the 15th largest fundraiser for the 2000 election of George W. Bush and has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the Republican Party [1].
