St. Luke’s honors Raimondi with award recognizing major contributions: ‘truly from the heart’

As a leader in the business world and then in education, Rich Raimondi always thought with that experience, it was necessary to also be a leader in his community.

An executive for nearly 30 years at Hewlett-Packard, he came out of a brief retirement to become president at Boise’s Bishop Kelly High School for 12 years until 2022.

Not only was he the past chair of the St. Luke’s Health System Board of Directors, he and his wife of nearly 50 years, Georgiann, have served on many other boards, supporting the arts, human rights, technology, education and more.

Raimondi refers to that feeling of giving back in retirement as “returnment.”

“Returnment encourages older adults to spend their later years using their skills, resources and knowledge to benefit the greater good,” he said. “The act of giving back or returning in some small way what the world has given you.”

For his contributions to St. Luke’s and his commitment to improving his community, the health system was honored to present him with the 2025 Light of Philanthropy Award on Nov. 7 at the Boise Centre on the Grove.

Since 1996, the award has been given to leaders in education, business and community, trail blazers in the nonprofit sector and champions of Idaho.

“When you combine his experience, his background, with really trying to do good, it’s truly from the heart, it’s amazing what can happen,” Skip Oppenheimer said. “He’s the role model for that kind of change and impacting the broader arena he’s gotten involved in.”

Raimondi has spent more than 20 years on boards supporting St. Luke’s. He recalled at the Nov. 7 event that it was former St. Luke’s CEO Ed Dahlberg and Alice Hennessey, a former Light of Philanthropy Award winner, who convinced him to do so.

Among Raimondi’s accomplishments was selecting Chris Roth as the health system’s president and CEO, along with soon after guiding through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s said that the ‘strongest steel is forged in the hottest fire,’ well, Rich and I went through the fire,” Roth said. “And I can assure you all that every single challenge, whether it be for Bishop Kelly, the community, for me, or for our organization, Rich showed up, consistently as a servant leader.

“What I remember most is the sense of steadiness Rich brought to a scary and dynamic situation. He did it carefully, he spoke thoughtfully, and he created space to think and breathe. He helped others lead at their strongest when everything around us felt fragile.”

But the desire to help St. Luke’s goes back decades. In July 1989, Georgiann gave birth to their son, Joseph, who sadly died just eight days later in the NICU. Raimondi noted that he and his wife “were greatly impressed” with the care.

“I hoped that by serving I might in some small way help St. Luke’s be an even better health care provider and lower the chances that other families would not have to experience what we did,” Raimondi said.

Former Idaho Business for Education CEO Rod Gramer said the honor is just as much Rich’s as it is Georgiann’s: “You don’t think of them as individuals, it’s always been Rich and Georgiann.”

“He’s received lots of accolades … I think this one is really special to him because of his love and his dedication and commitment to St. Luke’s,” Gramer said.

Raimondi called it “an incredible and humbling honor,” but also said he felt “unworthy” compared to previous recipients.

No offense to him, they would disagree. His final words at the ceremony said plenty.

“Please know Georgiann and I will do everything we can to honor receiving this award and continue to give back and help us improve the health of the people in the communities we serve,” he said. “I hope you will join us.”