Richard B. Platt – 50th Reunion Essay

Richard B. Platt

381 Country Club Lane

Grosse Pointe Farms, MI 48236

rplatt@proformparts.com

Spouse(s): Diane Graham Platt (1997–Present); Anna Dickinson Platt (1970–1993)

Child(ren): Richard Booth Platt, Jr. (1977), Anne Platt Barrows (1979)

Grandchild(ren): William Barnes Platt (2009), Martha Achelis Barrows (2010), Olin Reed Platt (2011), Jane Karlsson Barrows (2011), Hannah Platt Barrows (2014), Fischer Booth Platt (2014)

Education: Greenwich Country Day School 1962, Phillips Academy – Andover 1965, Yale College 1969

Career: Ford Motor Company, Marketing (1 yr); Polyproducts Corporation (1970–Present); Specialty Auto Parts USA., Inc. (1984–Present)

Avocations: Non-Profit Boards (Detroit Zoo, Phillips Academy), Golf, Travel

College: Silliman

Despite the calculation by Social Security that I have 26.5 years to go, meaning I can look forward to seeing my classmates at our 75th, it seemed advisable to seize this more certain opportunity to memorialize part of my life now, ignoring the discomforting feeling of writing my own obituary.

Richard Platt, who arrived in New Haven from England in 1638, preceding my arrival in 1965 by 327 years and 12 generations, might have been surprised to learn that the east corner of his farm, which occupied the north half of the block bounded by Chapel, High, and Crown streets (found on a readily searched 1641 map of New Haven), would eventually be exactly 100 feet and diagonally across Chapel Street from the west corner of my freshman-year Bingham Hall residence. Although Yale was founded in 1701, it took the Platts 130 years to appreciate it, starting with William Hinchman Platt in 1835, followed by his considerably younger brother Thomas Collier 1854 (withdrew due to illness, and later was the US Senator who consolidated the five boroughs to create NYC in 1898), Frank Hinchman 1877, Livingston 1907, Frank Hinchman II 1935, me 1969, and my daughter Anne Dickinson Platt 2001 (married: Barrows), making her sixth-generation, preceded by three Yale Club presidents, two with portraits hanging in the Yale Club (now above the fireplace in the Library and above the Grill Room’s bar, appropriately), and her great uncle William, who captained the ’38 football team. The point of this information: Yale has always been part of my life.

Building upon a favorable experience at Andover, Yale gave me the privilege of knowing classmates more resourceful, creative, curious, or intellectual than I—and the opportunity to benefit from some rub-off from college roommates who won a National Book Award, wrote novels, were doctors, were lawyers, or belonged to Mensa—all preceded by an Andover roommate who won three Pulitzers. With such a splendid foundation built upon a silver-spoon childhood, I knew I could make no excuses for how my life might evolve.

Resuming a tradition from my mother Achelis’s side of the family (hard rubber products sold by her father 1907, a founder of the Yale Art Gallery), manufacturing seemed like a reasonable proposition: make it for $1, sell it for $2, and sell quite a few. I knew nobody in manufacturing, telling me something about our country’s direction, and I observed that most classmates with brains and ambition were striving for success in medicine, banking, insurance, or on Wall Street (when they weren’t worried about the Vietnam draft, from which I was rejected due to a knee). It didn’t make sense to compete with that crowd, leading me to Ford Motor Company, which hired me because I had written the advertising copy for Ann Taylor Sportswear (for two years during class lectures), where I worked for less than a year before striking out on my own, thereafter following a very random path: plastic resins for sculptors, laboratory scales, jewelry scales, and high-performance auto parts, a field in which I share 18 US patents for products made with engineering drawings which, because I was an English major, never have spelling errors. An engineering major would have been more relevant.

Along the way I have been undeservedly supported by my wife Diane Graham Platt, who made her first Yale appearance at our 25th reunion, and by my son Booth, who broke away from the Ivy bubble, and works at the family company, where I enjoy watching him deal with matters for which I have little aptitude.   Additionally it’s been fun to have shared a college venue with a daughter who benefited from Yale’s decision to co-educate and who took great advantage of its extraordinary resources.

When not working (somewhat 24/7 due to operations in Asia), which has never been “work” for me because my endeavors have been so rewarding, or dealing with corporate litigation (a byproduct of intellectual property rights these days), I’ve enjoyed non-profit boards, most notably overseeing the financial affairs of the Detroit Zoo, traveling to bucket list locations like Antarctica and the Galapagos, and playing mediocre golf on great courses in the USA, Ireland, and Scotland.

If I am fortunate enough to be favored with good health, I hope to continue what I am doing, better know my six grandchildren under age nine, reconnect with more old friends, and visit additional bucket list locales.