Carl Reichardt
Class of 1949

That Carl Reichardt, who received his degree in economics from the University of Southern California, would succeed in life was obvious to his St. Thomas classmates back in 1949, but even they could not foresee how one man’s tenacity would lead him to become CEO of Wells Fargo, a chairman of Ford Motor Company, a director of Con-Agra Foods as well as a hand-picked member in 2003 of a panel to help lead California out of its financial woes.

Classmate Joseph D. “Denny” Powers gave Reichardt an emotional introduction, an introduction that could only come from a classmate who has watched one of his group achieve so much. Powers came to know Reichardt first in Father Carl Allnoch’s homeroom his freshman year and then during their sophomore year in Father Reese’s homeroom.

The reconnection of Powers, Reichardt and the rest of his classmates began in 1984 as the class prepared for its 35th reunion. It was then that that Powers learned that Reichardt was CEO of Wells Fargo. After talking “with two very polite administrative assistants,” Powers said he was able to talk to Reichardt who because of obligations could not make it to the reunion.

But the talk with Reichardt was important to Powers because of how it reminded him of the close friendship that St. Thomas students have, even though they go their separate ways at graduation. It reminded him of a story in which the narrator says, “I never had any friends, later on like I did when I was a kid.”

“Does anyone?” said Powers rhetorically, as he introduced his “classmate and his friend” as a Hall inductee.

Powers referred to a photograph in a 1947 newspaper article that showed what “a fierce competitor Carl was.” The photograph shows Carl and his teammates playing for a city-sponsored basketball team and it “clearly shows Carl directing the other four players.”

“Carl was always tenacious,” said Powers, who pointed to a quotation in the 1949 yearbook that clearly showed how Reichardt’s personality made a strong impression on his classmates: “Carl’s self-confidence and high ambitions together with his friendly nature assure him of a high place in life.”

The truth of that prognostication is obvious when one considers that Reichardt has become one of the top businessmen in America—so highly sought after was his business acumen that once he retired as CEO of Wells Fargo in 1994, none other than Ford Motor Company Chairman and CEO, William Clay Ford, Jr., great grandson of Henry Ford, talked Reichardt out of retirement to become vice chairman and head of the finance committee of Ford.

That expertise was needed again, when in 2003, Reichardt was one of three people named to a three-member panel by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to provide financial advice on the issuance of the Fiscal Recovery Bond sought by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of his California Recovery Plan. Reichardt volunteered his services to the panel.

Reichardt admitted in his acceptance talk that he was “not a very good student,” and he needed the discipline that he received while serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. He did acknowledge his need for more discipline in his life by pointing out that he was a “charter member of the Father Allnoch garden club”—a work detail given instead of other forms of corporal punishment. “I spent more time there than anyone,” Reichardt said.

There were other things about his student days at St. Thomas that were to serve him well later in business.

“When you are in the corporate world, you know how important diversity is,” Reichardt said. “This school is unique in that it practiced diversity—economic diversity—long before it became popular.”

Reichardt said he continues to support the school because he knows how important it is to keep that economic diversity a part of St. Thomas High School.
“The priests at St. Thomas truly cared about us; that was obvious,” said Reichardt, who continues to correspond with his classmate, the retired Bishop Most Rev. John E. McCarthy, D.D., ’49.

Reichardt and his wife, Patricia, have been married for more than fifty years. The couple has three children (Carl, Jr., Gretchen and Fritz) and five grandchildren.

Carl Reichardt was inducted into the St. Thomas Hall of Honor May 4, 2006.