Mark Richey Woodworking helps remember Dr. Paul Farmer

Partners in Health co-founder Dr. Paul Farmer dedicated his life to delivering health care to the world’s poorest places.  When Dr. Farmer, a Massachusetts native, died in Rwanda in 2022 of a heart attack at age 62, an effort began to create a final resting place for the cherished health care leader and advocate.

Mark and Teresa Richey and Mark Richey Woodworking have long been supporters of Dr. Farmer’s remarkable work. In 2010 when a catastrophic earthquake devastated Haiti, Mark Richey flew to Haiti to assist Partners in Health aid operations, delivered thousands of tents and sleeping bags to those in need following a collection drive back home in Massachusetts, ferried medical supplies and helped set up treatment areas, and ultimately donated all of the millwork for a new 300-bed teaching hospital and dormitories that opened in 2013. 

So as champions and loved ones of Dr. Farmer looked to construct a mausoleum in Rwanda as his final resting place, they knew just who to call for a key piece: the columbarium. Mark Richey and the Mark Richey Woodworking team worked with organizers to turn a redwood log, shipped from California to Massachusetts and then Rwanda, into a finished, artful resting place with acrylic shroud to hold Dr. Farmer’s urn.

On July 17, 2025, a celebration of life for Dr. Farmer was held and The Paul Farmer Mausoleum and Glade opened. You can see both here: A Celebration of Life: Dr. Paul Farmer (1959-2022)

Now with thousands of employees, the work of Partners in Health continues.

‍