Rubin, who endowed entrepreneurship program, is Culver’s grad of the year

Ron Rubin’s uncanny ability to read the tea leaves when it comes to the beverage business has been vital to his success.

Rubin ’68 W’63, executive chairman and minister of tea of The Republic of Tea, has shown a knack for pivoting at just the right moments, for providing sage guidance as a mentor, for being a socially and environmentally responsible business owner and for being altruistic, endowing The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur in 2010, a signature program at Culver Academies, and donating 450 automated external defibrillators to wineries in the United States after he suffered a nearly fatal coronary malfunction.

Those traits helped earn him the title of Culver’s Graduate of the Year for 2025. He was joined at the ceremony by Pam, his wife of 51 years.

Head of Schools Doug Bird ’90, Ed.D., called it fitting “that a school founded by a St. Louis-area entrepreneur who wanted to teach valuable skills for leadership and innovation to young people should honor another St. Louis-area entrepreneur who is also passionate about mentoring young people more than 130 years later.”

Bird also lauded Rubin’s business acumen and his support of entrepreneurship at Culver.

“The vision and passion that Ron Rubin brought to transforming business enterprises -- such as The Republic of Tea and River Road Family Vineyards and Winery among others – and combined with his generosity, belief in social responsibility and service to others, resulted in what is without a doubt something that is truly unique to Culver that no other school can offer,” he said at a Reunion Weekend ceremony on May 16, where he presented Rubin with the Curtis Eagle, the academies’ highest honor.

Rubin, whose new book “GOLD IN YOUR BACKYARD” offers 50 golden lessons on entrepreneurship, urged Culver Academies students to give back to Culver when they find success.

“You will feel t-e-a-riffic, terrific,” Rubin said in a videotaped message to students. He delivered his message via videotape because in 2017, while giving a speech, his implantable cardio defibrillator shocked him, so he no longer gives public speeches.

 

Rubin told the students he feels blessed to be part of the Class of 1968 because so many classmates also have found success, or gold in their backyards, and given back to Culver. He listed a few:

·      Brian Reichart, president and CEO of Red Gold, a family-owned tomato processing company, the lead donor for The Brian L. Reichart ’68 Shack.

·      Nix Lauridsen, co-founder and chairman of Lauridsen Group Inc., the lead donor for the barrack that bears his name.

·      John Chipman, founder and CEO of Chipman Design Architecture, was the architect for Culver’s White-DeVries Rowing Center.

Rubin also pointed out that in 2018, at the Class of ’68 50^th Reunion, the class raised $25 million for Culver.

“There is no doubt in my mind that each of you 823 Culver students will find gold in your backyard. Why? Because of the leadership and the teachers of Culver that have prepared you to find gold in your backyard as long as you dig deep enough,” he said.

Rubin said he can’t say he always wanted to be an entrepreneur. It developed over time as he voraciously read business books to make up for not having an MBA.

“I felt that maybe I’m not prepared enough if I don’t have an MBA degree,” he said.

He said he started reading at least one book a week to make sure he had the needed knowledge.

“I needed to learn and educate myself,” he said.

Ironically, Rubin later served as adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Saint Louis University, where he mentored MBA students.

He learned business from the ground up, starting at his father’s wholesale wine-liquor distributorship, Central Wholesale Liquor Co., in Mount Vernon, Illinois, about 75 miles east of St. Louis, after graduating from the University of Illinois.

About a decade later, Rubin saw the whole industry was consolidating so he knew he had to pivot. He decided bottled water was the way to go.

In 1990, he formed New Age Beverages in Mount Vernon and became the master licensee for Clearly Canadian Sparkling Mineral Water in the Southeastern United States. In a 10-state region he created a network of more than 100 distributors, who sold over 3 million cases of Clearly Canadian.

In 1992 he read the book “The Republic of Tea,” written by Mel Ziegler and Patricia Ziegler, co-founders of The Banana Republic, and their new partner Bill Rosenzweig, about starting up a tea company. One paragraph read: “My feeling right now is that bottled teas distributed on a mass scale are spinoff product or a license to a bottling company that is already in the water business.”

“When I read that, I said, ‘Man, they are talking about me,’ ” Rubin said.

He contacted them to see if he could get a license to sell the bottled tea.  Instead, he ended up buying the company.

 

The company, which adopted the idea that it was an independent nation, The Republic of Tea, called its employees ministers, its customers citizens, and its sales outlets embassies. Rubin is the "minister of tea," and executive chairman of the board of The Republic of Tea. His son Todd is now the company’s CEO, or minister of evolution.

Then in 2009 while training in Marin County for what would have been his eighth marathon, he sustained a “ventricular tachycardia”—a serious, life-threatening heart problem.

That inspired him to finally fulfill his lifelong dream of owning a winery. Rubin, who as a college senior studied viticulture and enology at the University of California-Davis, purchased the River Road Family Vineyards and Winery in Sonoma County California, in 2011.

The winery achieved a B Corporation, certification, which indicates a commitment to high social and environmental performance standards.

From the point of view of Culver students, Rubin’s greatest contribution is The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur, which he has helped to grow so much that its curriculum and learning opportunities rival some college programs.

Harry Frick, now retired, was a master instructor of history at Culver and had founded the Global Studies Institute (GSI) and came up with the idea of starting a school for entrepreneurs in 2006.

“We were looking for something to help Culver to stand out from other boarding schools. Entrepreneurial studies was becoming hot. I thought that was the future,” Frick said.

He originally started it as a separate office out of the GSI. But it quickly became popular with alumni who were eager to donate, so a separate school was created.

“The next thing I knew I was contacted by Ron Rubin. He said I love the idea of the school for the entrepreneur. If you continue to build it, I’ll fund it for you,” he said.

It turned into a field of dreams for student entrepreneurs.

Rubin recalls being excited about the idea.

“Harry knew I was devoted to business, and I saw an opportunity to help with some resources and get the program going. I wanted to support Culver. I thought it was unique enough that you could start at the high school level. You didn’t have to wait until the college level.” Rubin said.

Rubin eventually decided to endow the school and have it named after him. It was perfect timing because at the time, Frank Batten ’45, a communications entrepreneur who made his mark as chairman of Landmark Communications and founder of The Weather Channel, was offering to match endowment gifts to Culver.

“It just took off from there,” Frick said.

Half of the 830 students at Culver Academies have taken a class in the Rubin School in the past year. Those classes include three entrepreneurial studies classes, an economics class, a financial literacy class, two student-run businesses and an honors program.

While on campus, Rubin ate breakfast with the top CGA students in the program to discuss lessons from his book, in which he offers 50 lessons on entrepreneurship. He then taught a lesson to another group of students where he used the process for writing and publishing his book to illustrate a preview of the 51^st lesson, “It’s all about the 5%.”

Rubin also viewed the presentations by students honoring in entrepreneurial studies where he asked questions and offered advice. He gave every Culver student a copy of his book, which is available through Amazon and The Republic of Tea website. The first lesson is: find a mentor.

 

 

“I think it’s crucial that you have a mentor,” he said.

Rubin wrote about his mentors, starting with his father, Hyman Rubin. Others include his father’s business partner, Julian Venezky, and the sales manager at the distributorship, Frank Fourez Jr., and, more recently, Paul Chutkow, who helped guide him through writing his book, which he dedicated to his father.

Rubin also has been a mentor to a number of people, many with Culver connections. He’s been a mentor for Apprentix founder and CEO Andy Seth ’96, who said Rubin takes the time to get to know people so he can give advice.

“When it was us working together, it was Ron asking questions,” Seth said. “Anyone can send a Google doc and write comments. That's not how Ron likes to do things. He likes to go through the document and then talk to you about it and tell you, ‘Hey, OK, here's what I like.” … He's painting a vision.”

J.D. Uebler, director of the school, said he considers Rubin a mentor as well. Five or six times a year Rubin will send Uebler a book with a note: ‘Hey, I'm reading this. Can't wait to talk about it,’ ” Uebler said. “Ron's curiosity and his commitment to learning definitely influences us here in the Rubin School.”

Rubin also provides guidance to Uebler without just telling him what to do. He guides him through stories.

“He uses stories to help illuminate the situation that could help you make decisions,” Uebler said.

Rubin said he is pleased to see what the students at Culver are learning. They are well on their way to becoming entrepreneurs, or as Rubin prefers zentrepreneurs. He explains that an entrepreneur creates a business; a zentrepreneur creates a business and a life.

Looking back at all Rubin has accomplished, he no doubt is a zentrepreneur and a Culver man to his core.