Ex-G&K Chief, UTSA Chair, EPA Negotiator, Passes On
Richard M. “Dick” Fink, 91, a leading light in the industrial uniform business for 41 years with G&K Services and an active leader in the Uniform & Textile Services Association (UTSA), passed away on July 10 in Minneapolis from an illness, according to news reports.
In an online comment submitted by Dick Stutz, a senior vice president with G&K Services Inc., Minnetonka, MN, prior to its 2017 merger with Cintas Corp., Stutz described Fink as a visionary executive. “I met Dick when I was 20 years old when I went to work for G&K (1975),” Stutz wrote. “Dick was an incredible person and leader. When he spoke, whether it was a small group meeting or a large conference, he silenced the room and received the entire room’s attention. We did not want to miss a word he said. He was highly respected, if not the most-respected person I know.”
Another former G&K colleague, Jeff Wright, who served as executive vice president, CFO and a board member, as well as chair of both UTSA and TRSA, remembered Fink as much for his personal touch as his business acumen. “Dick was quite a luminary with G&K Services, but also with UTSA and as a past chairman,” said Wright. “Anyway, Dick was a Rhodes Scholar and a very smart man. But what I think is more important is he was a humble guy. He was a person who really cared about the employees at G&K Services and the customers, the suppliers and the various constituents of the company. He really cared about people. That’s what I’ll remember most about him. Anyway, one other fact, when Dick joined the company as a young man, G&K services was a very small company, about $8 million in revenue. When he left the company in the early 2000s it was an $800 million company. So, during his tenure – most of it as CEO and chairman – the company grew 100 times.”
Fink joined the then-family-owned G&K Services in 1964 as a route service driver. This followed a distinguished stint in academia that included graduating from the University of Minnesota and spending three years as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford in England. Fink also taught political science and government at Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison before joining the industrial uniform business full-time. He learned the industry from the ground up and advanced quickly, leveraging his leadership and strategic acumen to become G&K president in 1969. That same year, G&K also had its initial public stock offering. In 1977, Fink became chairman of the board of directors as well. He served as president through 1993 and as chairman and CEO from 1993-’97. Along the way, he chaired UTSA from 1997-’98. In 2005, he received the organization’s lifetime honor, the Gus Eggerling Award, at the organization’s 73rd Convention, which was held in Los Cabos, Mexico. Fink retired as chairman of G&K that same year. UTSA was “blended” into TRSA in 2008.
In an Industrial Launderer (IL) article on the convention, then-UTSA Chair Jim Buik, the Roscoe Co., Chicago, praised Fink for working with UTSA and TRSA in talks with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on a solution to the agency’s industry-specific effluent guideline draft that threatened the industry with massive costs to treat wastewater discharges. Fink and other industry leaders worked with the agency to document the case to nix the proposal, resulting in the first such EPA draft ever to be withdrawn. “If passed as written, these ‘categorical standards’ would have cost the industry hundreds of millions,” the December 2005 article said. Buik added in the article that, ‘Dick believed in maximizing efforts to ensure this would not happen.’”
Contacted this week for a comment on Fink’s legacy, Buik described him as a “renaissance man” who, while extremely intelligent, was always open to other people’s views. “Richard Fink was a dedicated steward of G&K Services, as well as the industry,” Buik said. “I served on the UTSA Board with him and while he was a great intellect, he was very approachable. Dick was always willing to listen to varying perspectives and then contribute his point of view in a respectful manner. He was a true renaissance man and leader in the truest sense of the word.”
In a 1996 interview in IL, Fink emphasized – among other topics – the importance of working collaboratively with industry colleagues and associations to ensure EPA compliance, while at the same time obtaining fair and workable environmental rules for the industry. “Influencing government standards in environmental matters and informing members of their legal obligations is the top priority,” he said. “We should spare no efforts here.”
Survivors include his wife of 33 years, Beverly Wexler Fink; a daughter, Susan Fink; a sister, Sandra Mandel; stepchildren, Nina (Russell) Rothman; Paul (Judith Smertenko) Himmelman; Peter (Maria) Himmelman; Peter Shapiro (Debra Krawitz); and grandchildren Adva, Aria, Solomon and Zoeyalong, plus many nieces and nephews.
Fink, along with his wife, Beverly, was long active in charitable efforts sponsored by the United Way and the Minneapolis Federation for Jewish Service. The couple also were active supporters of education and the arts, including the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota state college system, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Walker Art Center and Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA). A longtime art collector – mainly of pieces created in the 1950s and ’60s – Fink championed a select group of up-and-coming artists who later became prominent.
Services were held July 12 at the Adath Jeshurun Synagogue, Minnetonka, with a Shiva mourning period beginning that evening. In lieu of flowers, preferred donations include Little Hospice Edina, Mazon or Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. Click here to learn more.