BIG RAPIDS – Karl H. Roth of Bay City, Wells Fargo Advisors vice president and lead partner of Roth-Cooley Financial Group, was appointed to The Ferris Foundation Board of Directors. The Ferris State University Board of Trustees recently approved his appointment.
Roth’s entrepreneurial inclinations were first suggested when at age 15 he won the Outstanding Newspaper Carrier Award from his hometown newspaper. A year later, he graduated high school, and after being deemed too young to attend General Motors Institute, he began interim work at a pharmacy. This alternative career path led him to enroll at what was then known as Ferris Institute.
Graduating with a degree in Pharmacy in 1955, Roth also was elected to charter membership in the Rho Chi Honor Society. He later went on to open his own pharmacy in 1961 after service in the Army and working as an employee pharmacist.
Roth’s pharmacy grew and expanded over the years to other locations prior to him selling his interests to Union Prescription Centers of Milwaukee and becoming chief operating officer for the firm, which had 100 franchises and 40 company-owned pharmacies.
Always looking for new opportunities, Roth switched gears in 1981 to become financial advisor and broker to A.G. Edwards and Co. Now nearly 30 years later, he is vice president of the successor company, Wells Fargo Advisors.
An active golfer and sailor, Roth is a past president of the Bay City Lions Club and a member of the board of elders at his church. He has three sons, two daughters and two grandchildren.