Pam and Rick Rolph relaxing on a recent trip to Esperanza Resort in beautiful Cabo San Lucas.

By Nancy Koontz; photos courtesy of the Rolph Family

With a motto of “Why not excel at what you do,” six-year Castle Pines Village resident Rick Rolph is a man of many accomplishments, the most recent of which is raising millions of dollars for charitable causes with his talent as a skillful auctioneer.

Rolph is a decorated Marine Vietnam War veteran and a very successful businessman.  After an 18-year executive management career with IBM, Rolph, along with three other people, co-founded a customer care call center outsourcing business in 1997.  The company experienced phenomenal growth with Rolph at the helm of the company’s marketing initiatives.  They were given the Deloitte & Touche Governor’s Entrepreneurs of the Year award in 2001 for their high level of customer service.

After completing the sale of the company in 2003, Rolph attended the Missouri School of Auctioneering, and in 2004 began a lifelong dream and passion of benefit auctioneering, providing auction services for charity fundraisers such as: The American Heart Association, The Kempe Foundation, American Liver Foundation, Volunteers of America, Adult Downs Syndrome, Epic Experience camps for young adult cancer patients, the Heart & Hand Center for at-risk youth and their families, Children’s Diabetes Foundation and their yearly Brass Ring Luncheon, A Precious Child, Inc. for children living in poverty, and Veterans Passport To Hope aiding our Colorado wounded veterans.

Rick Rolpf with his horse A Little Minni Jac in Taylor Park on the 2015 “Big Ride” of the Roundup Riders of the Rockies.  Besides being a great trail horse,  A Little Minni Jac was the Rocky Mountain Quarter Horse Association Senior Reining Reserve Champion in 2006.

Rolph does about 30 to 40 fundraising auctions a year and has raised millions of dollars for local and national charitable foundations, the arts, schools, universities, hospitals and churches. Rolph said, “I’ve always had a fascination with auctioneering and decided to make it a second career.”

Rolph and his wife Pam have been married for 47 years and have two daughters, one living in Castle Pines Village and one living in San Francisco.  He is a member of the group Round Up Riders of the Rockies, a men’s organization dedicated to western and cowboy values and the preservation of public lands and trails for the benefit of all citizens.  Rolph participates in their 120-mile annual ride through the mountains, and the organization is one of the largest Colorado contributors to open space and have built several horse parks in Colorado.

Rolph’s next benefit auction is for the nonprofit Uplift International, which provides services where doctors perform reparative facial surgeries for children in the Philippines.  When asked what he sees himself doing in the future, Rolph replied, “I want to continue raising money for nonprofits, and I see myself making a significant contribution to helping causes like cancer, diabetes, heart disease and at-risk youth.  Just enjoying life for many years – until I fall over on the golf course or off my horse on the open range!”