Carl H. Ricker, Jr.

Carl Ricker was born in a small mill house in western North Carolina in 1943. His father, who worked for the tannery that owned the mill house, joined the U.S. Army soon after Ricker's birth and fought in the Pacific during World War II. Ricker's father returned home after the war but died in a car accident in 1948. Ricker moved with his mother to Asheville, North Carolina, to be near his mother's sister. They lived in a 28-foot trailer bought with the proceeds from his father's GI life insurance policy. They had no phone, bathroom, or automobile and survived on $64 per month in social security checks. Even so, his mother gave him a loving home environment with clean clothes and three meals a day.

Ricker attended high school but never graduated. At the age of 16, he got a job working seven days a week in a Billups service station. Many times, he walked the six miles to be at work by six o'clock in the morning, but he almost always hitchhiked home. Besides pumping gas, he kept the books for the station manager. When he was 17, Billups sent him to manage one of its stations in Greenville, South Carolina, which was among the least efficient of its 100 stores in the Southeast. Ricker turned it into one of the top three stations in the chain by selling tires and other car accessories at a nearby air force base.

Billups then sent Ricker to two other stations to turn them around. After those successes, he was offered the chance to manage one of its largest stations in West Palm Beach, Florida. He jumped at the opportunity. Once in Florida, Ricker met a Coca-Cola distributor who employed him in Delray Beach and Palm Beach. A year later, Billups offered Ricker a better job, in which he headed the chain's operations throughout Florida.

When called up for the draft, his three-year Army service included 13 months in the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea. Despite having dropped out of school, he had always been a strong believer in education, so after his discharge from the Army, he went to night classes for five years at the University of North Carolina in Asheville while running an auto business.

In 1967, Ricker opened a used-car business, Carver and Ricker Motors, with his uncle. He started with $740 and a $5,000 loan. In 1968, the business moved into recreational vehicle sales and in 1971 became the second-largest RV dealer on the East Coast.

In 1981, he bought land in Asheville to build and lease back a Shoney's restaurant and an Allstate office. He began investing in land and building Hardee's restaurants and other commercial buildings, and he bought and built shopping centers across the Southeast. Eventually, he owned and operated 105 Hardee's outlets. After selling those properties, he became one of the largest private real estate investors in the Southeast, which he controls through his companies, Azalea Holdings, Azalea Management, and Azalea Limited Partnership. He also became a real estate partner in Campus Crest Communities, a provider of housing for college students. Ricker has served as chairman of the executive committee of Capital Bank, as well as Capital Bank Holding Co.

A believer in helping others achieve their dreams, Ricker is active with the University of North Carolina in Asheville, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Hospice of Western North Carolina, and Mission Children's Hospital in Asheville.