Freeman School mourns the passing of Richard W. Freeman Jr.

Richard W. Freeman Jr. (BBA ’60), business executive, civic leader, philanthropist and lifelong supporter of Tulane University and the A. B. Freeman School of Business, died on June 10, 2026, at Lambeth House in New Orleans. He was 88.

Along with his father, Richard W. Freeman Sr., and his brother and sister, Louis M. Freeman (’63) and Tina Freeman, Freeman played an instrumental role in endowing Tulane University’s School of Business in 1984 and renaming it in honor of his grandfather, businessman and civic leader A. B. Freeman.

“Richard Freeman is among the very small number of people whose impact on business education at Tulane can truly be called transformative,” said Paulo Goes, dean of the Freeman School. “His leadership in the naming of the school is the most visible example, but his contributions to the university went far beyond that, spanning everything from service on boards, councils and committees to funding major initiatives including the A. B. Freeman Chair in Finance, the R.W. Freeman Distinguished Lecture Series and the Freeman Center for Doctoral Studies and Research. My heartfelt condolences go out to the entire Freeman family.”

Born in Chicago, Freeman attended Isidore Newman School, Culver Military Academy and Tulane University, earning a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1960. 

In 1971, he succeeded his father as president of the Louisiana Coca-Cola Bottling Co. and served in that role until the family sold the business to the Coca-Cola Co. in 1986. He later founded Oak Hill Ranch, a breeder of Danish warmblood horses, and operated the ranch until it was sold in 2021.

He served Tulane University as a member of both the Business School Council, serving as chairman in 1989-90, and the Board of Tulane. In 1988, he was named the Freeman School’s Outstanding Alumnus.

Throughout his life, Freeman remained active in the community. Among the organizations to which he devoted his time were The Chamber/New Orleans and the River Region, the Ella West Freeman Foundation, the RosaMary Foundation, the Junior League of New Orleans, the Vieux Carre Commission, United Way for the Greater New Orleans Area, the Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation and Hibernia National Bank.