Businessman recently died, but his support of young entrepreneurs lives on.
YORK, PA (May 8, 2017) – The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), Young Entrepreneur Foundation, announced that two York College of Pennsylvania students received a big boost to help pay for tuition from Richard Reinhardt, who built his York business selling industrial lifts. Mason Godfrey, of Dallastown, and Jessica Sherman, of Orange County, New York, were presented with $2,500 checks by Kevin Shivers, executive state director of NFIB Pennsylvania.
Richard Reinhardt was a long-time NFIB national board member who recently passed away. The scholarships are administered by the NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation and are based on academic merit.
Reinhardt bought a small forklift business in York in 1975, after moving up the ranks from salesman to general manager as an employee of a similar business. Once he owned his own business, he had stellar success, adding a facility in Allentown, and expanding sales to six different states. At one point Reinhardt owned or had an interest in 7 different corporations and expanded into office products at a time when word processing equipment sales were soaring.
Not only was Reinhardt a leader in business, but he was also very active in economic development and politics. He served as York Township Commissioner, chaired The York County Economic Alliance, was a charter member of Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Partnership, served on a congressional commission studying the Family Medical Leave Act, and chaired NFIB’s national PAC.
Reinhardt was determined to help young people get a college education, saying, “I promised to pay back to God if I were successful.” He and his wife Faye created a fund to offer scholarships to students of York College and had been doing so for about 28 years.
Executive State Director of NFIB Pennsylvania, Kevin Shivers said, “Dick Reinhart has contributed so much to the Pennsylvania economy, to NFIB and our future business leaders through this scholarship.”
The 2017 scholarship recipient Mason Godfrey is a junior majoring in entrepreneurship at York College who interned at a small business recently. Jessica Sherman is a York College sophomore who is passionate about entrepreneurship and technology who wants to own a tech company one day.
