The Big Board

No Missing Links

Dick McCready believes aggressive fund raising will raise the Center’s profile.

In 1995, as Baltimore Orioles’ third baseman Cal Ripken was about to break Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games record, Packard Center board member Dick McCready had a flash of insight. Why not link the milestone with a fund raiser for ALS research at Johns Hopkins? He approached Orioles owner Peter Angelos, and the rest is history: The event yielded $2 million for the Center as well as awareness of the disease that claimed Gehrig’s life.

McCready believes success is all about making connections like these. His relationship with the Center began with his mother’s death from ALS in 1994. In lieu of flowers, McCready, then chief executive officer of Advantage Sales & Marketing/ESM, told friends to support ALS research in her memory. He wrote the first check.

More recently, the Baltimore businessman made another connection. He recalled that singer Tony Bennett was a good friend of the late Baltimore chef Mimmo Cricchio. McCready convinced Cricchio’s widow, Mary Ann, and fellow board member Joe Foss, COO of the Baltimore Orioles, to ask Bennett to perform a charity concert in Cricchio’s memory. Last June, the Grammy winner sang to a crowded Baltimore symphony hall, raising $250,000 for the Center.

McCready attributes his success in business and philanthropy to his mother, a former teacher. The day after her son graduated from the University of Baltimore, she received an MBA from the University of Maryland. It took her 16 years to finish her education, he says, but she never considered quitting. “She was my biggest inspiration.”

After joining the Air Force Reserve, McCready went on active duty following the Korean War. In between, he earned a business degree, married, had three children and traveled extensively as a sales rep for two large companies. Eventually he managed a food brokerage, tripling their business during his first two years as CEO. He recently sold his company and—while not ready to retire—hopes to spend more time with his family, which includes three grandchildren. McCready and his wife, Mary, have homes in
Florida and Baltimore.