Richard Vaughan Burton Companies

August, 2008
by Eileen Mattai

“Business is seldom asked, ‘What do you need kids to do when they come to work for you?’ On the other hand, business is not good at telling schools what they need,” says Richard Vaughan, president of Burton’s for 25 years. “There is a real need for the business community to be involved as much as possible in the education of our children.”

Since February, Vaughan has been chairman of the board of Tech Prep RGV. “What I like about Tech Prep is we are focusing on getting the kids looking at careers. We need to reach more kids about the many different types of jobs, the many types of opportunities they have.”

Vaughan says he has always kept close tabs on Valley education, serving on the Weslaco school board for nine years. He and his wife, a Weslaco high school librarian, have four children who went through the Weslaco school system. “I feel like the schools are working really hard to educate our kids. The Tech Prep program is reaching an increasing number of students, but it’s still just a small amount of the total. We want to see that increase.”

As a businessman, Vaughan has enjoyed working with people from different fields: Region 1 and local school districts, Workforce Solutions and municipal economic development groups. “We really get into good discussions about ways to reach more kids. So many people are working toward similar goals. Tech Prep has a lot of good things but we need to get out and let people know what we’re doing.”

Vaughan agreed the Valley is known for its large, young labor force, with a caveat: “We need more qualified workers here. We have people but not enough are trained for what the employer needs.”

To help change that, he and Burton’s participated in a Tech Prep program this summer known as the Academic Leadership Alliance. A Valley high school teacher of auto mechanics came to work as an intern at Burton’s Weslaco store. “It was just amazing how much he learned and how much we learned. He now knows what skills his students will need. We look forward to doing that more often as years go by.”

Vaughan once described his business philosophy: “There’s no sitting back and saying we’re doing good. You have to keep trying to improve.”

He brings that same pro-active attitude to the Tech Prep Board. Yet Vaughan also admits he’s reaching an age where he reflects a little bit on what he wants to accomplish. “Just about everything I’ve been involved in has been to improve things for the next generation. Our real goal is about trying to make a better world for them.”