Hard Work, Soft Heart- Marshall E. ‘Doc’ Rinker, Dec. 8, 1904 – April 11, 1996

Marshall E. “Doc” Rinker built a one-man, one-truck rock and sand-hauling venture into a half-billion-dollar building materials business, then poured his energy into supporting the things he believed in most – education, religion and the arts.
Rinker arrived in Palm Beach County from Indiana in 1925 driving a Model T Ford. He bought a dump truck with borrowed money and started a hauling and cement company that barely managed to stay afloat during the Depression.
His reputation for hard work, integrity and willingness to take risks made him a legend in the building industry and one of the nation’s wealthiest men. Rinker Materials Corp. was the state’s biggest concrete producer when he sold it for $515 million in 1988.
He became a full-time philanthropist, bestowing millions on schools, hospitals, church and cultural organizations. He gave nearly $15 million to Palm Beach Atlantic College, which named its business school for him and made him a life trustee.
The University of Florida’s M.E. Rinker School of Building Construction is named for him in honor of the $7 million he gave and millions more that his gifts attracted. Stetson University’s Rinker Auditorium, Rinker Field and the Rinker Institute of Tax and Accountancy honor nearly $4.5 million he gave to the DeLand institution, which he served as a trustee for 30 years. He also gave $1.5 million to Good Samaritan Medical Center and $1 million to the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, site of the Rinker Playhouse.
When Doc Rinker died in 1996 at age 91, his friend George Elmore said of him:
“He demanded quality, from his people and his product.”
- MARY McLACHLIN