Honorary Degree Recipient: Mike Richter

Print | PDF

Doctor of Laws | Presented on June 10, 9:30 a.m.

When Laurier confers honorary degrees, we do so to acknowledge individuals who have made exceptional achievements in areas that align closely with our university’s key values and with our own areas of strength in research, teaching, and service to community and society. They are individuals whose character and values our students, graduates, faculty and members of the wider university community might do well to emulate. Michael Thomas Richter fits this description to a tee. His accomplishments as a student athlete, a professional athlete, an entrepreneur, and a champion for environmental sustainability are truly exceptional.

Many people in this auditorium – likely most of you – will know of Mike Richter as having been one of the best goalkeepers to ever play professional hockey. In 1994 he helped the New York Rangers win their first Stanley Cup since World War II, posting four shutouts in that year’s playoff tournament, stopping a penalty shot in Game 4 of the final, winning Game 7 by a score of 3-2. He was the most valuable player in the inaugural World Cup of Hockey in 1996, helping the U.S. team win the gold medal over a Canadian team that featured Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, and Steve Yzerman, among others. He was a three-time Olympian and medaled twice. His Rangers uniform number 35 hangs in the rafters of the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. In short, his professional hockey career was the dream of every kid that ever shot a puck or a ball at a net.

His path to professional hockey was the less travelled one, having been drafted by the Rangers after playing for the University of Wisconsin – a school known for its outstanding academic programs as well as its sports teams. Today, the trophy awarded each year to the most outstanding goaltender in NCAA men’s hockey is known as the Mike Richter Award. You have clearly reached the highest level of accomplishment in your field when they name the trophy after you.

Despite his accomplishments as a professional athlete, that is not why Mike Richter is being granted an honorary degree today. Our country has produced many great athletes, particularly hockey players – why would we go out of our way to honour an American who excelled at crushing the dreams of Canadian hockey fans on more than one occasion? It’s because of what Mike Richter has done, and continues to do, in his post-hockey career.

After retiring from the NHL he went to Yale University – another fine academic school – and completed a graduate degree in Ethics, Politics, and Economics with a concentration in Environmental Policy. He became an entrepreneur in the clean energy sector and is today the president of Brightcore Energy, a U.S.-based company that provides energy efficiency solutions for the commercial market, including LED lighting conversions, solar energy installations, geothermal heating and cooling systems, and electric vehicle charging and battery storage. At a time when the impacts of climate change are being felt acutely in many parts of North America, companies like Brightcore are essential to making the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy happen.

Mike Richter also gives generously of his time and personal energy to environmental initiatives and to sustainability in sports. He has served as an advisor to Riverkeepers, the Adirondack Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. He established an organization called Athletes for a Healthy Planet, which raises awareness of the connections between environmental issues, human health, economy, social justice, and well-being. He has chaired the Aspen Institute's Sport and Society Program and served as the NHL ambassador to Beyond Sport, an organization chaired by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair that leverages professional and high-performance sports to foster social change.

Laurier is not the biggest or most famous university in the world, but we teach and do a number of things well, including environmental sustainability, entrepreneurship, business leadership, social responsibility, community engagement, and high-level athletics. Mike Richter is a leader in all of these areas, and it is for these reasons that we – with great pleasure – honour him today.

Madam Chancellor, I am instructed by the Senate of the university to request you to admit to the degree of Doctor of Laws Michael Thomas Richter.