May 9, 2006 :: No. 242

Committing to the future prosperity and health of family-run businesses, longtime Titan supporter Rick Muth, president of Orco Block Co. and founding member of the Family Business Council, recently presented the College of Business and Economics $500,000 to establish an endowment for the Rick Muth Family Chair in Family Business.

Muth’s gift launches a $1.5 million “challenge” campaign to fully fund Cal State Fullerton’s first endowed chair. The campaign’s goal is to raise an additional $1 million from members, sponsors and friends of the Family Business Council.
“I’m glad to be part of something that is so positive and very important to the community,” says Muth. “Family business quite often equals small business, which has been part of the growth of our country for some time. I think this is an opportunity to help make something that is so important, better.”

“This first-ever gift towards an endowed chair is doubly significant, because it comes from a business friend of the college,” says Anil Puri, dean of the College of Business and Economics. “Rick Muth’s commitment is an inspiration to alumni and friends of the college to join in our campaign to make this a premier business school in the region.”

Muth joined Orco Block in 1975 as assistant office manager and moved up the ranks to the leadership position he holds today. He was honored as California Small Business Person of the Year in 2003, has served as president of the Concrete Masonry Association of California and Nevada, and in 1995, chaired the National Concrete Masonry Association.

Family owned since 1946, Orco Block Co. is one of the nation’s top-10 concrete block manufacturers, producing more than 500 stock items and maintaining an ongoing emphasis on product research and development, quality-control testing and supporting technical studies. Its management style is to reinvest profits back into the company.

“The gift from Rick Muth to establish a family chair is a tribute to the Muth family and the Orco Block business,” says Mike Trueblood, director of the Family Business Council. “Family businesses like to leave a legacy, and I can think of no better legacy to leave than the type and generosity of the gift from Rick. The funds will enable the Family Business Council to hire and employ a professor in family business, and the gift also ensures that the council and its goals to support family businesses will continue on into the future. What a wonderful legacy that is.”

The Family Business Council was established in 1995 as a partnership between the business community and the university. Its mission is to enhance the well-being and survivability of family businesses by providing opportunities for education, interaction and information tailored to the needs and concerns of business. In addition to monthly workshops, the center offers several peer-group affinity discussion meetings and is involved in the university course “Family Business Dynamics.”

« back to News Front