Colgate University alumnus Richard Roth, Class of ’75, has been named as the recipient of this year’s Colgate University Alumni Corporation’s Humanitarian of the Year Award.
When he arrived at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, in the early 1970s, Roth says his worldview expanded both as a result of the friends he made across races and ethnicities, and his being able to attend classes with such professors as M. Holmes Hartshorne, John Ross Carter, Vic Mansfield, Bob Smith, Ken Morgan and Marilyn Thie. Eventually he became, in his own words, “a Quaker by convincement” as he began attending his first meetings on campus at Chapel House.
Around this same time, a friend taught him screen printing, and he began making “Save Old Bio” T-shirts to protest the planned demolition of Hascall Hall. Another one of this professors, Professor Coleman Brown, also suggested he try divinity school, which he did for a year at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he spent time counseling drug addicts and teaching media techniques to children while also running youth entrepreneur programs, “taking them seriously,” Roth said.
In the ‘80s, in his basement, Roth founded Mirror Image Screenprinting & Embroidery, an award-winning, screen printer that creates garments and totes for customers nationwide and over time became an engine for Roth’s lifetime of wide-ranging humanitarianism as well. As a part of these efforts:
- Amnesty International named Roth “Keeper of the Flame” for his ongoing work as area coordinator for the organization’s highly active Group 133 in Cambridge
- Roth has provided shirts and hats for Willie Nelson’s Farm Aid concerts over the course of three decades
- Roth has been involved in helping stage multiple One Caucasus Festivals in Tbilisi, Georgia
- Working with Students for a Free Tibet, Roth’s work has included efforts to free 14 jailed Tibetan nuns
In 2023, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where Roth revived an old factory to house his growing business, inducted him into the city’s Hall of Fame. He also helped found the Pawtucket Film Festival in 2000 and volunteers as its director to this day. As part of Cambridge’s MIT university/community radio station WMBR, Roth is a DJ and station manager. At printing industry trade events, where he is a frequent speaker, Roth has raised thousands of dollars from vendors to help support emerging musicians and people without housing. His “Doing Good Merch” website markets T-shirts and hats and gives the proceeds to worthy causes.
Finally, Rick and his wife, Pam Ikegami, have aggregated countless printing industry articles as part their free website, “Ink Kitchen,” to help newcomers to the industry learn their craft. He has also posted hundreds of YouTube interviews with industry insiders.
“For the life he dedicates to prioritizing the needs of others, Colgate is pleased to name Richard Roth its 2025 Humanitarian of the Year,” said Lauri Curtis Hadobas ’77, Colgate Alumni Council president.
Established in 2003, the humanitarian award honors Colgate alumni who have devoted themselves to improving the lives of individuals and communities. According to Colgate University, recipients “are unusually committed to helping others and, by choice of career or other significant commitment of time and energy, exemplify all that Colgate seeks to inspire in its students by way of devotion to community.”
According to the university, the award also pays tribute to the late Jane Lagoudis Pinchin, a “distinguished member of the faculty, Dean and Provost, and Interim President of Colgate from 2001-2002, who in both her personal life and professional career has worked with intelligence, warmth, and energy for the benefit of communities.” Congratulations to Roth for this this latest well-deserved honor.
