The Col. and Mrs. John Ritchie Learning Commons
Frank Ritchie stands in the Chelsea High School library, which was recently renamed The Col. and Mrs. John Ritchie Learning Commons after his parents. Photo by Madison Miller.
Ritchie looked around for his father before realizing the student was addressing him.
“Hi, Mr. Ritchie,” the student had said.
“I just assumed they meant Dad,” Frank said.
It was 1984, and Frank’s first day teaching at Chelsea High School. For years, Mr. Ritchie the math teacher had been his dad. And now he was the new Mr. Ritchie the math teacher as well, stepping into the large shoes of his father.
During 11 years as a teacher at Chelsea, John Ritchie, Frank’s dad, quickly had become legendary.
“I had the opportunity to meet Col. Ritchie back when I first started,” current Principal Wayne Trucks said. “If you do anything in this community, everyone talks about what a neat person Col. Ritchie was.”
With changes being planned for library and media center at Chelsea, Trucks wanted to give the space a new name as well. He immediately thought of John and his wife, Terry. The school held a dedication ceremony in April, officially giving it the name “The Col. and Mrs. John Ritchie Learning Commons.”
When he first started teaching at Chelsea, Frank and his father were the only teachers in the math department, which has since grown to eight teachers. Since 1984, the high school and the city of Chelsea have continued to experience growth. Chelsea now has approximately 1,300 students total with 300 seniors graduating this year, Frank said.
“When Mother and Daddy moved to Chelsea, there was a population of nearly 600, and this was a quiet, peaceful, rural area,” said Frank’s sister Laura Chambless. “Watching the changes to Chelsea gave Daddy great pleasure.”
After graduating from West Point and a career in the Air Force, John and Terry decided to relocate to Chelsea, where her parents were from, in 1976.
“He had flown over the area many times in prior years and thought is was beautiful,” Chambless said. “Mother was not really sure about living in the country, but he convinced her to give it three years and if she did not like it, they would move to a city. Needless to say, after three years, no one could have convinced Mother to leave Chelsea.”
John had taught in the Air Force but went back to school for a teaching certificate afterward.
“Dad always said that teaching was the best job he’d ever had,” Frank said. “He really loved teaching.”
Following in his father’s footsteps, Frank also served in the Air Force and then joined his family in Chelsea. The inspiration to go into teaching came from his father, Frank said.
“It’s a great profession,” he said. “There’s really nothing else that I would rather do.
Despite the growth and the new faces of students each year, Frank said John’s legacy is one that is easy to remember. He still teaches students whose parents had John as a teacher, and he taught some current teachers on the Chelsea staff as well.
“Dad touched a lot of students here right now,” Frank said. “[It’s] great how much they remember things that Dad did for them.”
John was involved with the city of Chelsea outside of the school too. He served as a city council member, was one of the original members of the board of education and was a member of the Library Board of Chelsea.
“Their love of reading was passed on to their children and the grandchildren,” Chambless said. “Daddy never went anywhere without a book.”
Even after retirement, John and Terry could always be found cheering on the Hornets at the football games as Frank coached.
John died in 2013 at the age of 88 after a car crash on U.S. 280. With John’s support throughout his life, Frank was not surprised when he heard Trucks’ idea to name the library after his parents, but he was grateful.
“My dad was such a great teacher,” Frank said. “I’m fortunate to be able to follow in his footsteps.”
