Richard Guldi Recognized with the TI Founders Community Impact Award

Richard (Dick) Guldi – who has been an environmental activist for years – has been recognized as this year’s TI retiree recipient of the TI Founders Community Impact Award for outstanding contributions to the communities where we live and work. 

“I work for social and environmental justice in Dallas, in Texas, and worldwide,” said Richard. “I feel a religious calling to be a caretaker of the earth for current and future generations. I approach every day with the vision to see justice flow down like waters and righteousness like an everlasting stream.” 

The annual award honors our company’s founders and their long history of philanthropy and volunteerism. As the TI retiree winner, Dick will receive a $10,000 grant from TI that he can direct to a nonprofit organization of his choice. “TIers improve lives by supporting communities that we are proud to be part of and that we would want as our neighbor,” said Andy Smith, TI director of giving and volunteering. “Richard, in his retirement from TI, continues to embody that spirit and lets nothing deter him from his mission to be a steward of our planet.”

For the past ten years, Dick has testified frequently in front of environmental regulators at all levels of government, from local city councils in the Dallas metroplex to national government organizations such as the Environmental Protection Agency. Both he and his wife, Chris, advocate for clean air and water, climate change remediation, and social justice through environmental causes, particularly in south Dallas whose residents are often overlooked.

He and Chris have also served as conservation co-chairs for the Dallas Sierra Club (DSC), championing the health and safety of North Texas residents and collaborating with government and environmental organizations.  Dick is also a member of the DSC Political Action Committee and has worked diligently to build strong working alliances with Dallas city government to solve issues impacting our local environment. 

He and his family live their message of environmental protection through their advocacy of solar energy, better home insulation, and efficient home appliances to reduce their energy consumption and global footprint. They promote organic gardening, particularly in areas of south Dallas that are considered food deserts, and donate seeds, compost, mulch and seedlings. He and Chris organized the Poor Peoples Campaign Ecological Devastation bus tour in 2019 to bring together area leaders with citizens in south Dallas affected by local environmental disasters in Sandbranch, Joppee, and Shingle Mountain, an illegal pile of toxic pollution.

Dick’s tenacious spirit of environmental activism reaches beyond North Texas, however. He has raised awareness of the dangers of pipeline ruptures to the health of residents and cleanup workers; the impact of fracking to the environment, including emissions, ground water contamination, wastewater and earthquake triggers; air pollution caused by cement batch plants; lead pollution; and climate change, to name only a few. 

“My career at TI taught me that a dedicated and thorough person can accomplish amazing tasks,” Dick said.

Dick retired from TI in 2007, after 36 years of service.  His career began in 1971 in TI's Central Research Labs developing advanced infrared detectors.  In 1974, he took the Magnetic Bubble Memory Pilot Line from research to production in the Semiconductor Division. From 1981 through1995, he worked in integrated circuit development and production in various wafer fabs beginning with Advanced Front End Prototyping Center (AFPC) which merged into Dallas Logic. In 1995, Dick joined Dallas Productization Wafer Fab, which became the Kilby Fab and then the Silicon Technology Department (SiTD). When he retired, he was working on defect reduction and yield enhancement for advanced wireless integrated circuits in SiTD. Dick is being recognized specifically for his passionate and active hands-on dedication to protecting our environment.