Ralph J. Nagel
Ralph J. Nagel is an undeniable force as a visionary, entrepreneur, businessman, architect, artist, and philanthropist. He founded the Nagel Foundation, Meridian Retirement Communities, Top Rock, LLC, Alliance for Choice in Education (ACE), and Ralph Nagel Architects & Planners Inc. He serves on the Boards of Trustees at the University of Denver and Washington University in St Louis and is a Life Trustee of both Universities.
The Beginning
At eleven years old, Ralph Nagel decided to become an architect. Little did he know that this decision would begin the blueprint for a life without limits.
It took a lot to make this happen. Ralph was the first one in his family to go to college. Let alone aspire to go to a major university to study architecture far from the small town where he lived. And there was the daunting tuition he would need to pay. But his commitment to his future was unflinching. Without fear or hesitation, Ralph applied and was accepted to the six-year BS-Master in Architecture program at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. It took a lot of hard work to pay the tuition, but Ralph was a planner.
He started the summer before 8th grade, and then after school, working a five-and-dime store stocking shelves, building window displays, printing signage and sweeping floors. In high school, he worked as a butcher assistant at a local grocery store and then moved to a large national grocery chain working in all departments. At the same time, he earned the Boy Scouts’ highest rank of Eagle Scout. During college semester breaks and summer vacations, he worked all shifts, sometimes all in the same day, in the largest freight yard in Chicago to assemble inbound and outbound trains and also as backup in the central administrative office.
After Nagel earned his BA and Master in Architecture from Washington University, he was interested in further advancing his education. During his search, he turned down Harvard University twice. Instead, he decided to continue his higher education at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, earning an additional two Master's degrees in Urban Design and City Planning. There, as a student of the famous 20th Century architect Louis Kahn, he won the prestigious Stewardson Competition that awarded a traveling fellowship to travel to Europe’s great cities, ancient monuments, and modern health care facilities.
On this trip, Ralph visited the famous Catholic church of Notre Dame de Haut in Haute-Saone, which was designed by the French/Swiss architect, Le Corbusier. He would later marry his wife, Patricia (Trish) in this church.
Going forward, Nagel’s ever-present, steadfast dedication to living without limits has yielded a mosaic of experiences that continue to impact places, programs, and people in a uniquely positive way.
The Architect
Nagel founded the architectural firm, Ralph Nagel, Architects and Planners Inc. The focus of the firm’s work was designing residential and commercial buildings, community centers, medical office buildings and a dozen continuing care retirement complex across twenty states.
Nagel’s talent for design won the international competition to remodel the State of Missouri’s largest office complex in St. Louis, including the historic Louis Sullivan Wainwright Office building along with the redevelopment of the remaining part of a large city block.
The Entrepreneur
Nagel’s most singular achievement as an entrepreneur was his vision to create the Meridian Retirement Communities (“Meridian”). Before Meridian, the choice for seniors was to continue to live in their homes until they died (“Age in Place”) or, if their health care challenges made it unsafe for them there, they moved to a nursing home. Their decision where to live as they aged was driven by the “medical model of aging”.
Meridian was founded to offer another choice – Aging in the Right Place based on the social model of aging. It was groundbreaking to invite seniors to choose to move before they had to leave their homes due to health challenges. At Meridian, the physical and social environment encouraged them to re-invent themselves, make new friends, and develop new interests. At the point when they needed more care, Residents would receive that care where respect, dignity, trust, and safe maximal independence were emphasized.
Armed with this vision, during 24 years of ownership, the standard for aging for seniors was revolutionized. For the first time, seniors were embracing the rest of their lives rather than surrendering to an ever-shrinking life.
The Businesman
Not surprisingly, Nagel is a strategic thinker and doer in business. But above all else, he is pragmatic. He does not hesitate to say no when an idea or its execution is predictably flawed based on his high standards and, at the same time, to wholeheartedly engage and implement his own and others’ ideas that will work. He often is heard quoting Warren Buffett’s comment that the difference between successful and very successful people is their ability to say no to almost everything.
Nagel’s success in business extends to an impressive real estate and investment portfolio that reflects his interest in both the built and social environments spanning such diverse ventures as residential housing, office buildings, student housing, fitness centers, birthing centers in ten Chinese cities with John Hopkins University and neighborhood mixed-use and transitional housing for sober men recovering from addictions in Denver.
The Philanthropist
People, places, and programs have all benefitted from Nagel’s demonstrated talent to conceptualize and to actualize successful outcomes. Nagel reimagined the University of Denver’s campus not as it was but as it could be. His transformative ideas and engagement created Nagel Art Studio, Moye Hall, Hampden Center, Emergent Digital Practice Studios, and Nagel Innovation Engineering Center. In each project, Nagel’s contribution went beyond brick and mortar to inviting student inventiveness, creativity and advancing teaching practices anchored in the needs of the future.
When the University decided to build an upper classman residence building, Nagel saw the opportunity to abandon the traditional University “silos” to one that integrated living, learning, and culture. At Nagel Hall, this was achieved by suite-based housing, late-hour social dining, a variety of individual study spaces as well academic teaching and counseling spaces. Remarkably, he then filled all of the common areas and meeting rooms with original paintings by Colorado artists as part of the Nagel Art Collection at DU.
At the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, Nagel endowed the Ralph J. Nagel Deanship with this vision:
“It’s all about empowering the school to move beyond its current boundaries in inspiring the next generation of leaders to take creative risks. The Sam Fox School has the legacy, scale, and depth to support this critical need in society.”
It was because of this kind of thinking, and his enduring commitment to advancing art and design, that the University honored Nagel with the Dean’s Medal. Nagel’s ability to continuously, and with curiosity, find new ways of making a positive impact, led to his partnering with four other Denver businessmen to found ACE, the Alliance for Choice in Education. As of 2022, ACE has provided over 60,000 children of low-income families with scholarships to private schools in grades K-12 in twelve states while continuing to advocate for expanded school choice across the twelve states. Support for the program is based solely upon contributions from individuals, private foundations, and corporations motivated by their interest in sharing the gift of the American Dream. With Nagel’s creative and challenging insights both as a Chairman and Trustee, ACE has become more effective than it otherwise would be.
In 2013, Nagel, in association with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, produced the World Premiere of “Just Like Us” ( Simon Schuster, 2009), a play based on a collection of interviews by journalist Helen Thorpe of young Mexican girls who received scholarships from the ACE program.
The Artist
A desire to observe the world from another perspective, coupled with his passion for the arts in his own life, led Nagel to pick up a brush and paint. His artwork may be viewed at www.ralphnagel.com.
As an accomplished artist in watercolors, oils, acrylic, and ink, he has revealed an ability to adapt to a completely different technical and aesthetic vocabulary and, yet in each piece, find a consistent sense of energy, observation, and wonder.
Nagel has painted in several countries with the Paris-based Les Rats des Champs and annually spends time painting in Provence, France, and Phuket, Thailand. These experiences mesh with his constant curiosity to see things anew and to bring fresh ideas to his art.
His paintings can be found in galleries and museums and in private residences both domestically and internationally inviting introspection and a paramount reminder to embrace the present. “Truly seeing the subject of my art only takes place once the painting begins. It’s about that day, that moment. I would be lost if I knew the end when I begin. And as in life, painting is about having the courage to take risks towards an outcome that is unknown.”
At Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Wheatridge, Colorado, Nagel designed the Nagel Memorial - a large limestone sculpture garden that features a three-tiered lotus flower connected to an emerging blossom to represent the confluence of sky, earth, and water in life and death: ‘The beginning has just come to the end - and the end is just the beginning.’
Civil Engagement
A continuing commitment to public service saw Nagel making an impact at the highest level as he chaired George W. Bush’s Presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004 in Colorado as well as Bill Owen’s successful gubernatorial races in 1998 and 2002. He was appointed Chairman of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and served on the nominating committees for the Appellate and Supreme Courts of Colorado.
Social Engagement
The pursuit of possibilities displayed in the business, artistic and philanthropic venues extends to every facet of Nagel’s life. Since 2000, Nagel has coordinated the YPO Global Couple’s Forum, a group that meets annually in locations all over the world. Each meeting is moderated by professionals and has a different theme ranging from current business, family and to personal challenges. An avid cyclist, Nagel embraced the serene beauty of Colorado through the arduous seven day Ride the Rockies bicycle tour navigating the nearly 500-mile course, conquering the winds and curves to summit the peaks as in life. To share his enjoyment of cycling, he organized the Larimer Square Cycling Group that meets weekly.
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Ralph lives with his wife Trish in Denver, Colorado and continues to be creatively, politically and fiscally involved in multiple organizations, institutions, business ventures and foundations that revolve around his passion for design, art, education, civic and personal health and wellbeing.