Background of Richard Gunther
Working Hard. Giving Back. Building a Stronger Community.
At an early age, I understood the value of hard work. As a kid, I worked in my grandparents’ Carvel ice cream store, bussed tables at a deli, landscaped for the Department of Public Works, collected garbage, pumped gas, sold electronics at Radio Shack, worked as a bouncer, and repaired equipment as a maintenance tech at Coca-Cola. I even served as a DOT bridge inspector. At times, I held multiple jobs, working nearly seven days a week to save for college.
I earned both my Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Engineering Management from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark. That education laid the foundation for a successful 31-year career in the automotive industry.
I began my professional journey at Ford Motor Company as a manufacturing engineer, where I spent 17.5 years growing into several leadership roles. I was later recruited by Chrysler LLC during its historic turnaround, following bankruptcy. I spent the next 14 years helping rebuild an American icon, ultimately retiring as Vice President of Manufacturing at Chrysler (now Stellantis), the fifth-largest automaker in the world.
In January 2024, I launched my own consulting business — Gunther Motor Works — with a mission to help U.S.-owned companies strengthen their competitiveness in the global marketplace by applying my experience in automation and manufacturing.
Family and Community Roots
My wife Courtenay and I chose to make Walled Lake our forever home. In 2004, we both passed our Michigan Residential Builders License exam and began building the house we designed together — a home we still proudly live in today.
In 2018, we welcomed our greatest blessing — our son, Steele Gunther. He turns seven this July, and like any parent, I want him to grow up in a community that is safe, supportive, fun, and full of opportunity. Our roots are firmly planted here. We’re not going anywhere — Walled Lake is home.
We’ve built incredible relationships with friends and neighbors throughout Walled Lake and Novi. As your next mayor, I want to make every citizen feel like part of our extended family.
Family
My wife Courtenay and I decided to move to Walled Lake and build our dream forever home. In 2004 we both passed our Michigan Licensed Residential and Alterations Contractors license exam and proceeded to break ground in 2005 on our Dream forever home. We designed and general contracted the home we still live in in Walled Lake. In 2018 we were finally blessed with our only child Steele Gunther!
Steele is going to be 7 years old in July of 2025 and we both want him to have a fun, safe and prosperous community to grow up. Our family has no intentions of leaving this tight knit community. Over the years we have made lots of great friends and relationships in Walled Lake and Novi and are looking forward to making every citizen of Walled Lake a part of our extended family.
Remember to vote for Richard Gunther for Mayor of Walled Lake this November 4th !!!!
Development
Development is great for a community but only when it makes aesthetic and reasonable burdens on the surrounding current homeowners and businesses.
Our city management has leaned towards OVER Developing the remaining open property as a means of merely increasing city revenue which i believe is not always in the best interests of the current residents. Our city ordinances lack uniformity of appearance and lack adequate oversight that allows this such as the PUD and CPD ordinances that allow council to approve whatever they want ignoring ERBP and density ordinances. We fund the DDA (Downtown Development Authority) which hasn’t really made a meaningful difference from my perspective. Adopting other neighboring city ordinances to replace our cobbled up set of codes will be a priority under my leadership. If we truly want to have a warm, welcoming Down Town the DDA and city ordinances must adopt a uniform appearance set of ordinances to look like wixom, novi, Plymouth, and Rochester as examples. Out current ordinances have East Lake Drive, Pontiac Trail, and Maple Road corridors with no uniformity and for those that get the reference - looking lilike “Sanford and Son” .
I attend remotely DDA, Council, and when I have time other city meetings every month as a Zoom call participant and have been shocked by some of the administrations comments and disrespectful behavior. I commit to everyone that My administration will treat the residents with dignity and respect. Always. There must be strict adherence to the treatment of attendees and participants as The government Employees work for the people they aren’t just impediments or annoyances to the City employees.
I will not allow any city employee elected or appointed to ignore or treat differently our Citizens or our Business owners. That behavior is disturbing especially from city employees that happen to also be non-residents of our city.
Our duty in local government is to provide essential services for the most cost effective price and not to continuously increase revenue just to feed insatiable government spending
Political Experience
As a young man - I worked on my Uncles political campaigns where he served as the mayor of Brick New Jersey. My other Uncle and several cousins held various goverment roles with the city and also for the state of New Jersey where I became familiar with public sector approaches to problems. I held hourly summer replacement positions in Parks and Recreation department and with the Public Works department.
The demands and responsibilities of my primary career as an adult didn’t stop me from giving back to Walled Lake. I firmly believe that we all have a civic duty to be involved in any way you can with local government, charity, and any type of governing body that can effect you or your neighbors. Having limited available time due to the demands of running a large manufacturing organization I was still able to commit my time and was appointed to two important and impactful positions for the city. I have served on the Zoning Board of Appeals and The Tax Board of Appeals for many years. Those positions required limited time committments but as i learned from my childhood - These roles are the best way to assist my neighbors. These positions ensured that the citizens were protected from the grasp of overreaching government beauracracy. Providing citizen protection from our city arbitrarily rejecting truly reasonable variance requests from a homeowner and often unreasonable over valuation of individual property tax assessmernts.r
Charity Work
My Father taught me that the greatest feeling in life is to be thankful for the achievements you have earned and alway share what you can with those that aren't as fortunate. I have truly lived by those words.
I was a founding member of the Walled Lake Civic Fund established by a group of lake friends to give back to our community in charitable ways through fundraising events and to fund an annual Walled Lake fireworks event. We have all donated our time and resources to help our communities unfortunate families and one great summer event in the downtown of Walled Lake.
I was also nominated to be a member of the Board of Directors for The 100 Men Club of Detroit. This group of South East professionals capitalize on the power each member donating $100 dollars each quarter to raise $10,000 or more to provides a donation to a small local charity. Since founding this group we have donated over $300,000 to 30+ local charities. I recommend visiting the website to see some of the organizations trying to fill the needs of our communities. This has been one of the most rewarding organization of which I have ever been a part.
One of my most meaningful accomplishments was starting a foundation to honor a colleague in the automotive body welding community. We had collected over $25,000 dollars and I founded the Dan Waun Memorial Foundation. This 501C3 was going to nominate an Engineer from the industry for recognition as a leader of leaders and would be given a plaque in honor of his legacy Each winner would be given a nominal amount of money to be used to sponsor a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) activity to encourage young people to enter an industry that had great respect for Dan Waun. I will never forget his face when I explained that this would essentially ensure that a part of him would live forever doing what he loved. Dan was like a father to me and most importantly my friend.
These are just a small part of the things I have done to share my blessings with others and if you all elect me as your mayor it will be another milestone in giving back to the greater community.