Making the Difference
Ralph Falls Jr
A Simple Thing, with Big Returns
By Claire Cusick
Most often, the term “investment” refers to money. But at its most basic, investing is about building a better future.
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| Ralph Falls Jr. |
Although he may not have realized it at the time, that’s what Dr. Ralph L. Falls Sr., a Morganton dentist and farmer, was doing when he started sending his son to work in the fields in the early 1950s.
“My dad stuck me every summer working on his farm,” remembered Ralph Falls Jr. “I worked from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. I made 30 cents an hour.”
The father’s goal was surely to strengthen the son’s character, and to show him how hard farm work could be. “I was afraid not to graduate from college,” Falls Jr. said.
Graduate he did, from UNC’s business school (now called UNC Kenan- Flagler) in 1963. Falls Jr. went on to a successful career in the medical industry, first as the founder of Charter Medical Corp. and then owner and CEO of the medical supply company Roane-Barker Inc.
During the Carolina First Campaign, to honor his father, Falls Jr. used a planned gift to help create and name a monetary prize to benefit M.B.A. students at UNC Kenan-Flagler.The Falls Prize is awarded to up to six outstanding M.B.A. students with full fellowships. Recipients receive a $25,000 stipend over two years.
The prize is awarded to students demonstrating the highest potential for leadership, superior academic achievement and a diversity of lifetime experiences. In creating it, Falls Jr. said he hoped that The Falls Prize will help Kenan-Flagler attract the most promising students.
“To my knowledge, this type of prize has never been done before,” Falls Jr. said. “I want to compensate students for their performance, leadership abilities and character, because students who embody these things are tremendous assets to Carolina.”
So Falls Sr. will continue to have an impact—even on people he never lived to meet. And Falls Jr. is already able to see the fruits of his own investment. The Falls Prize was awarded to five students in 2007. Seven have been offered to incoming students for the fall of 2008. The stipends have attracted to UNC students who might have gone to other business schools.
Falls Jr. called the first recipients “truly outstanding.”
“It has been a real pleasure getting to know these people, and I have gotten some type of personal note from each one,” he said. “I’m looking forward to following them and their careers for a long time.”
He’s heard that the prize made a difference in their school of choice. “A number of them came to Carolina and say the prize factored into their decision. That was the whole purpose of it—that they would give Carolina another look. Of course, once they get here, they realize even more what an outstanding choice they made.”
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