Richard Dallas (Dick) Waterfield was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1944, the youngest of the three children born to Richard Hobbs and Anne Kendrick McGill Waterfield.
Mr. Waterfield attended South Side High School, graduating in 1962. He went on to earn his Bachelor of Arts degree from Denison University in 1966 and his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Northwestern University in 1968.
After a stint in the Army Reserve, Mr. Waterfield joined his father, Richard H. and President Joel Bravick at Waterfield Mortgage Company in Fort Wayne. He was enamored with investment property finance and began brokering commercial mortgage loans to the company's institutional lenders.
In 1980, Mr. Waterfield became chairman of Waterfield Mortgage Company upon his father's death. The company had been growing rapidly throughout the1970's through a series of well-executed acquisitions and the building ofan exceptionally talented management team. Mr. Waterfield concentrated on acquisitions, and in particular, "work out" issues from acquired companies. He, working together with Howard Chapman, the company's counsel, also facilitated seamless shareholder continuity during this period.
Together with Jerry Von Deylen (formerly CFO of First Federal of Fort Wayne), he engineered the acquisition of several thrift institutions in the 1980s. That materially assisted the company's rapid growth as interest rates declined and loan production exploded during that decade. Upon the retirement of Joel Bravick in 1987, Mr. Waterfield facilitated senior management transition to Donald Sherman, and together with Mr. Von Deylen, the three of them ran the Waterfield Group for many years thereafter.
In 1999, Richard decided to reduce his family's risk by allowing a restructuring of the company. Restructurings of the Waterfield Group put majority control into the hands of senior managers and outside investors.
In 2005, the board of directors decided to sell all assets of the Waterfield Group. This was accomplished by working with several different buyers for various aspects of the business. As Mr. Waterfield had gradually stepped back from daily corporate duties, he stepped further into civic activities including co-founding the Downtown Improvement District and the Fort Wayne Sports Corporation. He served as President of the Canterbury School Foundation for nine years and has long been Chair of the school and foundation Joint Investment Committee.
Mr. Waterfield has been Chairman of his family's foundation since its beginning in 1992. He is an Emeritus Director of the Fort Wayne Parks Foundation and is a Life Governor of the Riley Children's Foundation in Indianapolis where he serves on the Finance Committee.
Appreciating the importance of a healthy central business district to any city, Mr. Waterfield has been very active in efforts to revitalize downtown Fort Wayne. In 1983, working with Mayor Wm Moses and the Fort Wayne Convention Authority, he formed a group to own and lease back the new Grand Wayne Center, a major development in recovery process for downtown Fort Wayne. He also led the restoration of the Barr Street Market Building and the renovation of the long vacant L. S. Ayres Building, which became Renaissance Square (and now called Citizens Square). He was also instrumental in making possible the Courthouse Green, a major "green" improvement for downtown, east of the famed Allen County Courthouse.
Mr. Waterfield and his family have been generous supporters of local education, funding scholarships to Canterbury School and Indiana-Purdue University, Fort Wayne. His family's financial support of the building of the IPFW first student housing complex, built as what is now known as the Waterfield Campus helped IPFW make a major shift from an entirely commuter campus to a partially residential one.
In June 2005, Purdue University honored Richard with an honorary doctorate in Management. In recognizing Richard's reception of the award, Paul Helmke, former mayor of Port Wayne said: "Dick has put his time, his money, and his organizational efforts behind making the Fort Wayne business community, the quality of life in Fort Wayne, and IPFW better and stronger."
Mr. Waterfield has long been interested in helping underprivileged students have educational opportunities such as he and his own children have had. In 2012, he co-founded the Young Scholars Academy (YSA) along with Jonathon Hancock and Cookye Rutledge, both professional educators associated with Canterbury School. The organization has since joined with the Boys and Girls Club of Fort Wayne. Over 150 middle and high school students have been able to enter college with the assistance of YSA tutors and leaders. All are the first in their families to consider getting a college degree.
Mr. Waterfield has always considered himself an environmentalist, i.e., a person who cares deeply about the health of our planet. He has joined with the Environmental Resources Center (ERC) at Purdue Fort Wayne (PFW ) to provide sustainable financing to educate and promote students who wish to become activists in protecting our natural world.
Mr. Waterfield has been a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and is now a lifetime member of the Chief Executives Organization (CEO). He has three children and nine grandchildren.
Waterfield Capital, LLC