Freddie Richard’s years as a student at Jesup High School were years of accomplishment. Freddie served as Senior Class President, Vice-President of the National Honor Society; he was a Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Ambassador, he lettered in football, wrestling and track, was active in speech, drama and choir, he was Homecoming King, Prom King, and captain of the wrestling team. But even with all the hard work, Freddie had time for fun: like during half-times of varsity home basketball games when he and classmate, Paul Yeager, would dress up in their swing choir tuxedos, don sunglasses, and sweep the gym floor while the band played the Dragnet theme—which probably explained their nickname, the “Broom Brothers.” He also learned some great life lessons in high school, such as the year the play director, frustrated at a number of cast members failing to memorize their lines, walked out two weeks before the fall play was due to open. Although Ms. Sigurdson stepped in to help, she stressed that it was up to the cast to make the show sink or swim. For fourteen days, the cast pulled together and worked their tails off and had a lot of fun in the process. While the production wasn’t spectacular, it wasn’t a failure either and the experience turned out to be empowering for the students as they learned just how much they could accomplish on their own.
After high school, Freddie continued his education at Hawkeye Community College and graduated Phi Theta Kappa with an Associate of Arts Degree. He entered Iowa State University and earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Advertising; and then continued his education at the New York Film Academy, Universal Studios campus, graduating from there in 2002.
Freddie began his career as an advertising account representative at the Iowa State Daily, where he was a finalist for the College Newspaper Business and Advertising manager’s Sales Rep of the Year. He later was employed as a production coordinator at MTV Networks, NYC, working on collateral print
for MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. As a Broadcast Producer at Leo Burnett in Detroit from 2000 to 2007 and since 2007 to the present at Carmichael Lynch in Minneapolis, Freddie has produced TV commercials for Pontiac, Cadillac, GM Goodwrench, Subaru, Harley-Davidson and Jack Link’s Beef Jerky and has earned various advertising awards for his ad campaigns.
Freddie’s interests are many but one is certainly politics. While a student at HCC, he was elected Student Senator and while at ISU in 2000, he was a member of Iowa State University Cyclones for Gore and introduced Vice-President Al Gore to Iowa State University on national television the night before the Iowa Caucus elections. From 2004 to 2006 he was elected Macomb County Democratic Delegate and he has volunteered and worked on the following presidential campaigns: Vice-President Al Gore (2000 in Iowa and Michigan), Gov. Howard Dean (2004 in Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan) and Senator Barack Obama (2008 in Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan and Ohio). In addition, Freddie has been a volunteer for Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity, Real Aloud America, and Sharing and Caring Hands. When time allows, he enjoys camping, fishing, mushroom hunting, attending advertising functions and creating short films.
Freddie’s has this great advice for our Jesup High School students and I quote: “Embrace attending a small town school and take advantage of opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities. You might find a talent or take interest in a subject that you would least expect. Bigger schools can’t always offer these types of experiences. Also, don’t let high school stress you out. High school should be fun. Do your best and be responsible. You’ll have plenty of time to stress later. Finally, you can do anything you want to do. I know it sounds cliché, but you don’t have to settle for the norm, unless you want to. It may take a little more work and some courage, but you’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish.”
I was honored to present the Freddie Richards Social Studies award along with Jason Sullivan the other Social Studies teacher, last night at an academic awards program at Jesup. The award went to the present Valedictorian of the senior class, Kayla Mangrich. She was very deserving and has a lot of the same qualities as Freddie. The following is a brief biography that high school secretary Darlene Phillips wrote about Freddie. He has had much success in his young life.
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