Americans for Prosperity announced Richard Willich as its new chairman of the Florida Advisory Board this week. In this capacity, Mr. Willich will be responsible for advancing AFP-Florida’s mission to educate citizens about economic policy, mobilize citizens to achieve fiscal and regulatory restraint by state governments, and return the federal government to its Constitutional limits.

Richard Willich was born in Chicago in 1942. He attended various local public schools as he grew up and helped to support his family by working at the Republic Steel mill. He graduated from the Tilden Technical High School in 1960 and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He attended Ripon College in Ripon, WI and graduated in 1964. In 1965, Richard was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and was awarded a Purple Heart as a U.S. Marine Infantry Platoon leader in Vietnam. By 1971, Richard had moved to California and become the president of the founding Mission Viejo Rotary Club.

Richard graduated from Pepperdine University in 1972 with his Master’s Degree in finance and, from 1974 to 1976, attended Western State University Law School. Richard earned his private pilot license in 1978 and, in 1981, became a member of the Young Presidential Organization. He founded Dow Industries in 1982 and, by 1985, it was ranked as the 11th fastest growing private company by Inc. magazine. In 1986, Dow Industries was sold to a New York Stock Exchange company and Richard joined the Board of Trustees at Ripon College.

In 1988, Richard served on several special projects for the Deputy Undersecretary for Trade and Security Policy. In 1990, Richard retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the U.S. Marine Corps after 30 years of service. He became a founding member of the Health Advisory Committee for the newly independent State of the Former Soviet Union in 1991. This was of special importance to Richard as his father was a Serbian immigrant. Additionally, in 1991, as a gubernatorial appointee, he participated in several restoration projects, including the Stone House at Manassas and Robert E. Lee’s boyhood home. Richard started Medical Development International in 1992. Even with his success in the business and military world, Richard made it a point to give time and other resources to educational, military and historical preservation organizations.

In 1993, Richard joined the Board of Advisors for George Mason University for the Master of Public Administration program. From 1998 to 2002, Richard served as a board member for the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation and, in 2005, became the Chairman of the Board for the Marine Corps Reserve Association. In 2006, Richard’s Woodleaf Investment Company published Frederick Tilp’s book This Was Potomac River. That same year Richard purchased 25 acres of prime commercial property in Nocatee in Ponte Vedra, FL and planned for the construction of two state-of-the-art buildings to house his companies.

By 2008, Richard moved three of the four MDI Holdings, Inc. companies to the 100,000-square-foot office building in Nocatee. Since the founding of Medical Development International in 1992, Richard grew it to a $200 million holding company with four subsidiary companies. Ever the philanthropist, Richard used his entrepreneurial successes to give back to the local community by sponsoring the St. Johns County Police Athletic Football League, the St. Johns County public schools, the Florida Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches, and the Ponte Vedra Bird Island Park. Richard is also a board member of the Raleigh Tavern “Innkeepers” of the Williamsburg, VA Foundation.

Richard’s passion for history is not only demonstrated in his charitable giving but also in his personal life as demonstrated by his extensive, private Civil War library, which includes a complete volume of Civil War records, both Union and Confederate, and the original Grant Memoirs.