Richard Alport is a veteran real estate professional, financial whiz and champion blood donor—all in one. 

And now he celebrates a new milestone: Nov. 4, 2023, marked the 100th pint of blood Richard has donated to the American Red Cross at the Chesterfield Red Cross Blood and Platelet Donation Center at 13369 Olive Blvd.  

Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood for surgeries, cancer treatments, chronic illnesses, and traumatic injuries. Roughly 2,500 U.S. hospitals and transfusion centers rely on the Red Cross to collect around 12,500 donations each day to meet patients' needs.

Richard’s personal experience made him realize how critical those needs are. In 1995, he began donating when his wife, Stephanie, suffered from anemia due to blood loss from ulcerative colitis.             

“She is better now, but I just kept donating over the years,” said Richard who has known Stephanie since grade school.  “We both grew up in Clayton, live in Chesterfield now and have lots of family in the St. Louis area.”

The pair got together long after grade school when they met again. Richard had earned a business degree from the University of Michigan and was working as an auditor for RubinBrown—a certified public accounting firm based in Clayton. 

In 1990, Richard’s father convinced him that life was much better in sunny California. “We did enjoy San Diego where I worked for three years for a large real estate developer as a financial analyst and Stephanie was in publishing. But when Stephanie got sick, we came home to be close to family and friends,” he said.

In St. Louis, they raised their son Jeremy, who is now in graduate school. For several years, Richard was involved in serving as Chief Financial Officer for a local non-profit organization developing low-income housing and providing technical assistance to nonprofit community development organizations.

Then in 2000, he joined The Lipton Group. Richard is now Chief Financial Officer of this developer of a wide range of commercial real estate projects from apartments to retail centers and office buildings.

Since 2016, he has also served on the Board of Covenant Place—which provides affordable housing to hundreds of older adults, along with social services and programming for the greater Metropolitan St. Louis area senior community.

Over these years, Richard continued to donate intermittently until the needs of another family member drove home the importance of giving blood.

“My father-in-law was diagnosed with myelodysplasia syndrome,” he said.

This is a group of disorders caused by blood cells that are poorly formed or don't work properly.

 “He needed blood transfusions to increase the number of healthy blood cells,” he noted.

Richard’s father-in-law’s death in 2017 prompted his family to establish an annual blood drive in his memory.  The Alan Broddon drive became the Broddon Alport Lux Annual Drive, and in the past six years, the family has attracted hundreds of donors who are friends, family members and even fishermen who were close to Alan.

This blood drive each September at Richard’s synagogue---Temple Emanuel on Conway Road in West County---offers Richard yet another opportunity to give blood and build his pint count.