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Ockerbloom, who served as a trustee for 12 years, embodied the longstanding co-op relationship between the Globe and Northeastern.
Richard C. Ockerbloom, a Northeastern University graduate who served as vice chairman of the Board of Trustees and rose from a co-op of The Boston Globe to its president, died March 7. He was 95.
Ockerbloom’s gratitude for the role his alma mater played in launching his career inspired him to support Northeastern’s mission from a variety of leadership positions. He was elected in 1986 to the Northeastern Corporation, the university’s governing board, and elevated in 1990 to the Board of Trustees.
Over the next 12 years, amid a crucial period of growth for the university, Ockerbloom served Northeastern in myriad ways, including a role on the Dean’s Executive Council in what would become the D’Amore-McKim School of Business. He was elected vice chairman of the Board of Trustees in 1998.
“Dick was an exemplary leader, a changemaker and a true friend,” said Joseph E. Aoun, president of Northeastern. “He impacted all who were fortunate enough to know him, myself included, and he leaves behind an indelible legacy of kindness and service. He will be deeply missed by the entire Northeastern family.”
Carole Shapazian, who as a trustee served as chair of the student affairs committee of which Ockerbloom was a member, remembered Ockerbloom as a “well-rounded individual” who showed the versatility and curiosity to address a wide range of subjects.
“I had a lot of respect for him,” said Shapazian, vice chair emerita of the Board of Trustees. “I thought he was an ideal trustee. He had a broad range of interests and he was dedicated to the school.
“I don’t think you could ask for any more favorable attributes,” Shapazian added. “He was smart. He was insightful. He was committed to the school.”
In 2002, upon his election to vice chairman emeritus of the board, a tribute from the Board of Trustees summed up Ockerbloom’s ongoing contributions to Northeastern by citing a quotation from the 17th-century French playwright and poet Molière:
If everyone were clothed with integrity, if every heart were just, frank, kindly, the other virtues would be well-nigh useless …
“It’s a wonderful expression,” said Neal Finnegan, who chaired the Board of Trustees for 10 years as a colleague of Ockerbloom’s. “Dick Ockerbloom was generous. He put his hand up to do anything asked of him. People loved him. He helped students get jobs. He was a very complete Northeastern person.”
Ockerbloom was awarded a Northeastern honorary doctor of laws degree in 1995. He and his wife established the Richard C. and Anne Ockerbloom Scholarship in the D’Amore-McKim School of Business.
They married in 1955 after Ockerbloom had served two years in the Army. Anne Ockerbloom died in 2021.
His ties to the university were extended by a son, John, and granddaughter, Christine, who are both Northeastern graduates.
Parallel to his leadership at Northeastern, Ockerbloom also helped preside over an era of prominence at the Boston Globe, which became New England’s dominant news organization while earning multiple Pulitzer Prizes. He embodied the longstanding and ongoing co-op relationship between the paper and Northeastern.
Ockerbloom had been introduced to the Globe in September 1948 at an entry-level position that resulted in “probably the longest co-op job in the history of the university,” he would note humorously in reference to his eventual retirement from the Globe as vice chairman in 1993.
After graduating in business administration in 1952, Ockerbloom returned to the Globe as a full-time employee on the business side. His diverse experiences paved his long and steady ascent to the presidency of New England’s leading newspaper.
“Dick Ockerbloom was one of those talented people who built the Globe and allowed it to become not just successful as an editorial powerhouse, but equally successful as an economic engine that helped to pay for a great news department,” Benjamin Taylor, who succeeded Ockerbloom as president, told the Globe. “He was a smart businessman with great common sense who had an innate understanding of what the right thing to do was.”
In addition to his five children, Ockerbloom is survived by 16 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. A sixth child, Carl, died of cancer at age 46 in 2004.