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Richard T. Farmer

American businessman

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ7329345 ↗
Source-derived summary

Richard Thirl Farmer (November 22, 1934 – August 4, 2021) was an American businessman known for his tenure as chief executive officer of Cintas from 1968 to 2003.

Career

Farmer worked for his father in the family business, Acme Wiper and Industrial Laundry, through childhood, high school, and college. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Business from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1956. At Miami, he became a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity. After graduation, he served in the United States Marines before being honorably discharged, coming on full-time with the family business in 1957.

In 1959, Farmer's father transferred operation of the business to Richard. In 1962, the company name was changed to Acme Uniform & Towel Supply to reflect the uniform rental growth segment. By 1966, Acme annual revenues had grown to $1.8 million.

In 1968 Farmer created a new company, Satellite Corp., to provide a centralized distribution system and to develop smaller uniform plants in major U.S. cities. In 1973, Satellite acquired Acme and became known as Cintas.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Richard T. Farmer” as american businessman. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Richard, Farmer and American.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1934, 2021, 1968, 2003—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1934, 1934-11-22—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Richard, Farmer and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Richard T. Farmer”, the useful work is to connect “american businessman” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7329345. VIAF identifies the subject as 41237124. The Library of Congress control number is n2004098906. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1934, 2021, 1968 and 2003.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
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  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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  2. Expand the search: follow Richard T. Farmer primary sources, Richard T. Farmer archive and Richard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Richard T. Farmer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.