Louis Rieger

Lou was born in Camden, New Jersey, grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and graduated from Rutgers University in 1962. He was commissioned into the Air Force in 1962 as an officer, serving for three years. Lou graduated from Harvard Business School in 1969 as a Baker Scholar. After graduating from Harvard Business School he worked at McKinsey and Company before finding his passion in executive search. Lou had a twenty-year career with Spencer Stuart holding the positions of vice chairman and managing director. Lou started the Houston office of Spencer Stuart. Tom Simmons, the current managing director, reports, “he put me in the best job in the world.”

Lou Rieger estimated that, in his 20 years in executive recruitment, he completed over 500 executive and board of director searches. The one he may have been most proud of was his two-year pro bono search on behalf of Mayor Kathy Whitmire for Chief of Police Lee Brown, who later became mayor of Houston. But the full list of his completed searches would read like a Who’s Who of the Houston business community.

Lou brought a special charm to his work. As one executive later said, “Lou recruited me in a very subtle way. He’s no high-pressure guy. He’s more of a finesse guy.” Everyone who knew Lou enjoyed his generosity, his empathy, his sense of humor and his genuineness. He was a man who, although he worked day in and day out with the top ranks of the business world, treated everyone he met with the same graciousness. He will be greatly missed.

In addition to his lifework, Lou served as President of the Harvard Business School Alumni Club.

Lou is preceded in death by his parents, the late Dorothy and Louis J. Rieger, Sr. He is survived by his wife of thirty-one years Nancy of Austin; Alison Rieger Brayton and her husband, Pete of Houston; Jamie Rieger and his wife, Bobbi of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Gerry Sarver and his wife, Patty, and their children, Will and Caroline of Plano, and Brett Sarver and his wife, Tracy, and their children, Audrey and Sarah of Houston.

The family would also like to acknowledge the loving care of the staff at the Isle at Cedar Ridge in Cedar Park, Texas.

The memorial service is to be conducted at one o’clock in the afternoon on Monday, the 30th of April, in the Jasek Chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston. Immediately following, the family will receive friends during a reception in the adjacent Grand Foyer.

In lieu of customary remembrances, memorial contributions in Lou’s name may be directed to The Parkinson’s Disease Center at Baylor College of Medicine, 6550 Fannin St., Suite 1801, Houston, TX, 77030; the National Parkinson Foundation, Gift Processing Center, P.O. Box 5018, Hagerstown, MD, 21741-5018; or to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, Attn: Tribute Gifts, Church Street Station, P.O. Box 780, New York, NY, 10008-0780.