Richard A. Busemeyer

Richard A. "Dick" Busemeyer (July 15, 1924 - September 2, 2006) was a self-made man, a middle-American entrepreneur who rose from childhood poverty in Ohio to comfortable wealth in business enterprises and real estate in both his home state and in Florida. A humanitarian and philanthropist in his later years, Busemeyer, promoted and defended liberal philosophies in Ohio and Florida newspapers.

A believer in the concept of a fair and living wage, in early 1988 Busemeyer created an organization he called "Wages And Not Tips", with the acronym W.A.N.T. His was an organization formed to encourage tipped employees &mdash; primarily waiting staff &mdash; to negotiate with their employers for a living wage instead of their relying on gratuities from customers for most of their income.

Busemeyer and the members of W.A.N.T. refused to tip restaurant servers, hotel porters and bellhops, and other tipped employees. Instead of leaving or offering a tip, W.A.N.T. members handed the employees a folded business-sized card. On the face of the card was printed "About Your Tip" with a graphic of an open, extended palm with a coin in it. Inside the card was a short message explaining the reason for the giving the card instead of a tip, and ending with the plea "Please show this to your employer. Tell him you don't want handouts, you want a paycheck."

Early life and family
Busemeyer was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio and that city's neighboring suburbs. He was born into a devout Roman Catholic family. He was educated in Catholic schools from his early school years (St. Agnes elementary school, Purcell high school) and on into his university years (Xavier University). [stub: to be continued.]

Military service
Busemeyer was drafted into the U.S. Army in March, 1943. After basic training he served as an ambulance driver in the Medical Corps at Fort Polk, Louisiana. He was later sent to Dental Technician School at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where he received training as a dental assistant. He then applied for and was immediately accepted as a candidate for Officer Candidate School (O.C.S.). Upon completion of his training as an officer he received a commission as a second lieutenant, U.S. Army Medical Corps. Upon being commissioned he received orders to attend Battalion Surgeon's Assistant school at Camp Butner, North Carolina, to train for assignments to front line medical units where he would perform triage on combat casualties. After completing that school he was assigned to a medical unit of the 5th Infantry Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

World War II had begun drawing to a close by the time Busemeyer had completed basic training, Dental Assistant school, O.C.S., and Battalion Surgeon's Assistant school and reported for duty at Fort Campbell. Busemeyer continued to serve with the 5th Infantry Division at Fort Campbell until after the end of the war in Europe and in the Pacific. He was released from active duty in the Army on August 2, 1946, after two and a half years of service to his country in time of war, and transferred to inactive duty in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Busemeyer served as an officer in the Army Reserve until, originally intending to complete 20 years of combined active duty from 1943 until 1946, and inactive duty in the peacetime Army Reserve thereafter. However, with the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 and President Harry S. Truman's call-up of Army, Navy, and Marine Corps reservists to meet the new wartime emergency of the Korean "peace action", Busemeyer faced a dilemma. Married by then, and a family man with a wife and two children, one a newborn child and the other just a toddler, he made the decision to resign his Army commission and remain at home with his family.

Marriage and children
After his release from the Army Busemeyer found work with Sears and Roebuck Company selling vacuum cleaners in the store, and demonstrating them to interested customers in their own homes. It was hard work, he said, "... but it was damn good training." At a dance held at Xavier University, Busemeyer met and danced with Marjorie Voss, a girl from his neighborhood. The two were married on June 26, 1948. Their first child was a girl, Terri. Their second child, also a girl, was born on September 15, 1950.

[being continued]

Business ventures
[stub/note: His post-World War II "Ironrite" (ironing mangle) venture to be described here, among other of his business ventures. -- Ed.]

W.A.N.T. and its demise
Busemeyer and the members of his W.A.N.T. organization received considerable criticism from wait servers for not tipping them, and also from the general public as well. The most common criticism from servers about Busemeyer's W.A.N.T. group was predictably about W.A.N.T. members not tipping them. Typical of server criticisms was author Debra Ginsberg, a one-time waitress who did not know who started W.A.N.T., or why, but was severely critical of the group's practice of leaving a card instead of leaving a tip. In her book Waiting: the True Confessions of a Waitress, Ginsberg advised whoever tried the group's tip card trick should "... watch your back on the way out of the restaurant because those who don't tip can expect unique repercussions from those they stiff."

But criticism coming from the other side of the table about W.A.N.T. members was not that W.A.N.T. members did not tip, or that W.A.N.T. was really all about abolishing tipping per se and not about decent wages, but that Busemeyer and his members were aloof, agitating for change from the sidelines. This type of criticism charged that W.A.N.T. members were putting the burden for change on the backs of the very employees they claimed they were working for. W.A.N.T. members had nothing to lose, the charge went, but employees who took their advice and went to their employers for an increase in wages stood a very good chance of losing their jobs. Another &mdash; and perhaps more damaging &mdash; criticism leveled at Busemeyer was that he charged W.A.N.T. members for their cards. Possibly as a businessman he felt it necessary to recover the costs he was incurring (about 15 cents per card) on cards he was having printed at his own expense. Possibly as a humanitarian and philanthropist he felt that those espousing his cause should be willing to help shoulder the organization's financial burden &mdash; small as it was. In any event, it was apparent from audience reactions in his guest appearances on Bill Cunningham's WLW talk shows and The Phil Donahue Show on television, that the idea of him charging for his W.A.N.T. cards suggested that his cause was perhaps motivated a bit more by his commercial interest than by his ideology.

His letters to the editor
Busemeyer was an inveterate writer of letters to the editor. His opinion letters appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Cincinnati Post, and the Boca Raton Sentinel, expressing both his own opinion on a variety of subjects, as well as responding to the opinions of others. Busemeyer and his ideas was also the subject matter of several of those papers' columnists and editorials, ranging from Busemeyer's anti-tipping/fair wage activities with W.A.N.T. to his belief during Gulf War I that 'flag-waving' American's cover America's 'darker side' of racism, neglect and crime at home.

Awards
[stub/note: Still putting this together. -- Ed.]

"Faithful to his beliefs to the very end."
[stub/note: An exposition of how Busemeyer's system of beliefs and outlook on life helped him in the days leading up to his death. -- Ed.]