:Rip Rapson
{{short description|American attorney and philanthropist}}
{{Use American English|date=April 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Rip Rapson
| image = Rip Rapson.jpg
| birth_name = Richard Rapson
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1952|03|16}}
| birth_place = Bonn, Germany
| nationality = American
| education = Pomona College (BA)
Columbia University (JD)
| title = CEO of Kresge Foundation
| term = 2006–present
| spouse = {{married|Gail Johnson|August 1989}}
| children = 2
| father = Ralph Rapson
| module = {{Infobox officeholder | embed = yes
| office = Deputy mayor of Minneapolis
| term_start = April 15, 1989
| term_end = 1993
| predecessor = Jan Hively}}
}}
Richard "Rip" Rapson (born March 16, 1952) is an American attorney and philanthropist serving as the CEO of the Kresge Foundation. He began his career as a congressional aide to Donald M. Fraser during Fraser's last two terms in the United States House of Representatives. After attending Columbia Law School, Rapson joined the law firm of Leonard, Street & Deinard to practice law while also serving on the board of several organizations. In 1989, Fraser, who had become mayor of Minneapolis, appointed Rapson as his deputy mayor and, in 1993, Rapson unsuccessfully ran for mayor to succeed Fraser.
After leaving the Minneapolis City Hall, Rapson became a fellow at the University of Minnesota and then was appointed president of the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis. In 2006, he moved to the Detroit area to become CEO of the Kresge Foundation. He has led the foundation in a number of philanthropic endeavors to revitalize and rescue Detroit from bankruptcy.
Early life and education
Richard "Rip" Rapson{{Cite web|url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/motor-city-after-bankruptcy-and-detroiters-left-behind/|title=How Motor City Came Back From the Brink…and Left Most Detroiters Behind|last=Halperin|first=Alex|date=July 6, 2015|website=Mother Jones|language=en-US|access-date=April 6, 2020}} was born on March 16, 1952,{{Cite news|last=Franklin|first=Robert|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48110325/star-tribune-p-a10/|title=Rip Rapson to take helm at McKnight|date=July 14, 1999|work=Star Tribune|access-date=April 6, 2020|pages=A1, A10|via=Newspapers.com}} in Bonn, Germany,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48110548/star-tribune-p-2b/|title=Sunday Q & A / Richard (Rip) Rapson|date=May 14, 1989|work=Star Tribune|access-date=April 6, 2020|pages=2B|via=Newspapers.com}} to Mary and Ralph Rapson. In 1954, the family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Ralph became head of the University of Minnesota School of Architecture{{Cite web|url=https://www.startribune.com/the-hand-of-ralph-rapson/17274674/|title=The hand of Ralph Rapson|last=Mack|first=Linda|date=April 8, 2008|website=Star Tribune|access-date=April 6, 2020}} and a prolific architect in the city.{{Cite news|last=Pogrebin|first=Robin|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/arts/design/03rapson.html|title=Ralph Rapson, Modernist Architect, Is Dead at 93|date=April 3, 2008|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 6, 2020|language=en-US}} Mary said that their son was nicknamed Rip because he was "kicking and moving" even in the womb.{{Cite news|last=Parsons|first=Jim|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48111025/star-tribune-p-5a/|title=Rapson's quest to be mayor, once thought quixotic, gains momentum|date=August 2, 1993|work=Star Tribune|access-date=April 6, 2020|page=5A|via=Newspapers.com}} He has a younger brother, Thomas ("Toby"), who also became an architect at their father's architectural firm.
At Marshall-University High School, Rip Rapson was a baseball pitcher, played basketball, tennis and learned to play the trumpet. He chose to attend Pomona College in California which he believed had a good tennis team. In 1974, he graduated magna cum laude from Pomona with a bachelor of arts degree in political science.{{Cite web|url=http://magazine.pomona.edu/wp-content/uploads/images/pdf/2014-fall.pdf#page=26|title=Blaisdell Distinguished Alumni Awards for 2014: Rip Rapson|date=Fall 2014|editor-last=Wood|editor-first=Mark|website=Pomona College Magazine|pages=49|access-date=April 6, 2020}}
Career
After college, Rapson was hired by Arvonne Fraser, who ran her husband Donald M. Fraser's offices in Washington, D.C., when he served as a United States representative from Minnesota. Rapson was a congressional aide from 1974 to 1978 during Fraser's last two terms in the U.S. congress.{{Cite news|last=McGrath|first=Dennis|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46329394/star-tribune-p-7b/|title=Fraser picks attorney Rapson as deputy, liaison to council|date=March 15, 1989|work=Star Tribune|access-date=April 6, 2020|pages=7B|via=Newspapers.com}} He worked as a liaison between Fraser's Washington office and his local district office in Minneapolis as well as contributing to the writing and passage of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act of 1978 to protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota.{{Cite web|url=https://kresge.org/news/tribute-minnesota-hero-instrumental-placing-children-and-families-core-municipal-policy|title=Tribute: Minnesota hero instrumental in placing children and families at the core of municipal policy|last=Rapson|first=Rip|date=June 6, 2019|website=The Kresge Foundation|language=en|access-date=April 6, 2020}}
Rapson then graduated from Columbia Law School with a J.D.{{Cite web|url=https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/michiganians-of-year/2015/11/05/michiganian-year-rip-rapson-kresge-foundation-focused-detroit/75260046/|title=Rip Rapson: Visionary with a focus on Detroit|last=Hodges|first=Michael|date=November 5, 2015|website=The Detroit News|language=en|access-date=April 6, 2020}} and joined the law firm of Leonard, Street & Deinard. He became a partner at the firm{{Cite web|url=http://tcbmag.com/news/articles/2013/former-twin-cities-leader-heads-effort-to-revitali|title=Former Twin Cities Leader Aims to Revitalize Detroit|date=January 15, 2013|website=Twin Cities Business|access-date=April 6, 2020}} and remained there from 1981 to 1988.{{Cite news|last=Levy|first=Paul|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48113448/star-tribune-p-1e/|title=Mayor candidate who lost in the primary now face a void in their lives|date=November 1, 1993|work=Star Tribune|access-date=April 6, 2020|page=1E|via=Newspapers.com}} He also served on the Library Board, the Board of Estimates and Taxation, and the boards of 13 other organizations in the city during that period.
On March 14, 1989, Fraser, who had become mayor of Minneapolis, appointed Rapson as his deputy mayor, effective April 15, 1989, to succeed Jan Hively. As deputy mayor, Rapson was in charge of liaisoning with the Minneapolis City Council. He was also responsible for the creation of a $400 million Neighborhood Revitalization Program and chaired its implementation committee.{{Cite web|url=https://www.minnpost.com/metro/2019/02/putting-neighborhoods-2020-in-context/|title=Putting Neighborhoods 2020 in context|last=Nathanson|first=Iric|date=February 20, 2019|website=MinnPost|language=en-US|access-date=April 6, 2020}}
Rapson ran in the 1993 Minneapolis mayoral elections against Richard Jefferson, a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, and Sharon Sayles-Belton, president of the city council.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/video/1993-mayoral-candidates-for-minneapolis-15299/|title=1993 Mayoral Candidates for Minneapolis|last1=Latimer|first1=George|last2=Bickal|first2=Jim|date=November 10, 1992|website=KTCA Reports|publisher=PBS|access-date=April 6, 2020}}{{Cite news|last=Wahlberg|first=Adam|title=The Stealth Candidate Moves to Center Stage|date=August 1993|work=Law and Politics|issue=5|volume=8|pages=17–18}} Rapson relied on a grassroots campaign, receiving only 4% of his funding from political action committees.
After his unsuccessful bid for mayor of Minneapolis, Rapson accepted a senior fellowship at the University of Minnesota. He then served for six years as president of the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis.{{Cite book|last1=Proscio|first1=Tony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OwmDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT113|title=Embracing a City, The Kresge Foundation in Detroit: 1993-2017|last2=Farber|first2=M. A.|date=January 14, 2019|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-9839654-9-7|pages=113|language=en}}
In 2006, Rapson was appointed CEO of the Kresge Foundation, a foundation based in Troy, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. He was responsible for a number of large grant programs made by the foundation including a $100-million grant to bring financial stability to the Detroit Institute of Arts whose art collection was owned by the city when it went bankrupt in 2013 and was being considered for sale to cover the city's debt.{{sfn|Proscio|Farber|2019|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=OwmDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT51 51]}} Together with Gerald Rosen, a U.S. district court chief judge, and Darren Walker of the Ford Foundation which chipped in another $125 million,{{Cite web|url=https://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20170530/news/629951/rip-rapson|title=Rip Rapson|last=Welch|first=Sherri|date=June 1, 2017|website=Crain's Detroit Business|language=en|access-date=April 6, 2020}} Rapson helped organize a "grand bargain" as proposed by Judge Rosen,{{Cite book|last=Bomey|first=Nathan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cvZ1CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT118|title=Detroit Resurrected: To Bankruptcy and Back|date=April 25, 2016|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-24892-0|pages=118|language=en}} with other contributions from a number of foundations and the state of Michigan, to keep the art collection from being liquidated and help preserve pensions for city retirees, whose retirement funds were also at risk.{{sfn|Proscio|Farber|2019|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=OwmDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT51 51]}}
File:Rip_Rapson_-_Q-Line_Opening.jpg streetcar in Detroit, Michigan]]
Under his leadership, the foundation contributed $150 million to the implementation of the Detroit Future City plan to revitalize the city{{Cite news|last=Dolan|first=Matthew|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324081704578233660780156682|title=Foundation Pledges $150 Million to Detroit|date=January 10, 2013|work=Wall Street Journal|access-date=April 6, 2020|language=en-US|issn=0099-9660}} and also spurred the development of the QLine streetcar project in downtown Detroit.{{Cite news|last=Walsh|first=Tom|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48114173/detroit-free-press-p-9a/|title=Kresge Foundation puts up money so plan won't gather dust|date=January 10, 2013|work=Detroit Free Press|access-date=April 6, 2020|pages=A9|via=Newspapers.com}} Rapson is a founding member on the board of directors of M-1 Rail, a non-profit organization which built, owns, and operates the QLine.{{Cite web|url=https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2019/05/21/qline-schedule-detroit-streetcar-m-1-rail/1128445001/|title=Wondering when QLINE will arrive? You're not alone, but new system could change that|last1=Lawrence|first1=Eric D.|last2=Zaniewski|first2=Ann|date=May 21, 2019|website=Detroit Free Press|language=en|access-date=April 6, 2020}}{{Cite book|last1=Powell|first1=Walter W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uJnWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT251|title=The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook, Third Edition|last2=Bromley|first2=Patricia|date=April 14, 2020|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-1-5036-1108-5|pages=251|language=en}} He also serves on the Detroit board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagofed.org/people/person-listing?filter_team=4|title=Detroit Board of Directors|website=Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago|access-date=April 6, 2020}} As CEO of the Kresge Foundation, as of 2017, Rapson manages the organization's $3.8 billion in assets and 105 full-time employees.{{Cite web|url=https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/2019/08/23/nonprofit-ceo-salary/1836964001/|title=Southeast Michigan nonprofit CEO pay has jumped. Here's why|last=Reindl|first=J. C.|date=August 23, 2019|website=Detroit Free Press|language=en|access-date=April 6, 2020}}
Personal life
Bibliography
- {{Cite book|last1=Proescholdt|first1=Kevin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AbdDAQAAIAAJ|title=Troubled Waters: The Fight for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness|last2=Rapson|first2=Rip|last3=Heinselman|first3=Miron L.|date=1995|publisher=North Star Press of St. Cloud|isbn=978-0-878391-00-4}}
- {{Cite book|last1=Hession|first1=Jane King|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H56XQgAACAAJ|title=Ralph Rapson: Sixty Years of Modern Design|last2=Rapson|first2=Ralph|last3=Rapson|first3=Rip|last4=Wright|first4=Bruce N.|date=1999|publisher=Afton Historical Society Press|isbn=978-1-890434-14-4}}
References
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Category:Columbia Law School alumni
Category:People from Minneapolis