James “Jim” Ritter

Jim Ritter, age 83, beloved husband, father, brother and friend passed away on February 2, 2025. A long-time resident of Wayne and member of Packanack Community Church, his loss is profoundly felt by his family and many friends.

Jim was born on July 10, 1941 to Gerda and Marvin Ritter in the small community of Montevideo, Minnesota.  Growing up, he and his younger brother Norm enjoyed trading comic books, taking turns with their prized crystal radio and learning to play the trumpet, something encouraged by their father who was an accomplished musician. Jim was a good student and loved reading and participating in his school’s current events club. One of his first big adventures out of Montevideo was to Minneapolis where he proudly represented Chippewa County in the state Spelling Bee finals. He loved the big city!

His academic journey took an unexpected turn during his senior year when his father passed away suddenly, requiring Jim to help run his dad’s meat market. Despite this challenge, Jim graduated from Montevideo High School in 1959 and became the first member of his family to attend 4-year college, earning a scholarship to the University of Minnesota where he majored in an exciting new field of study—Broadcast Journalism. After completing his degree, Jim entered the Army as a film librarian and served in the Army Reserves. His first full-time job was in Norfolk, Virginia where he worked as an on-camera news reporter.

A few years later, Jim met the love of his life, Marianne, in Philadelphia while he was working at WCAU- TV and she at United Press International. They were both assigned by their news organizations to cover the same story. One year later, they married on June 24, 1967 in Chester, Pennsylvania and spent the next 57 years devoted to each other.

Jim’s distinguished career in the field of broadcasting spanned more than 40 years. Early in his career, he was honored as a 1969-1970 recipient of the prestigious CBS Foundation News Fellowship at Columbia University. He later served as Vice President of Affiliate Services for NBC and spent 15 years at CBS News.

Jim was known to his friends and family for being kind, big-hearted, generous and always a gentleman. His smile and positive energy would light up a room.

He was a loving father to Scott and Amy and enjoyed attending their school events--band competitions, concerts and plays, and could often be seen in the back of the auditorium capturing everything on videotape. He and Marianne also enjoyed taking the kids on exciting family vacations visiting family in California and Wisconsin, and many national parks-- Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and a spectacular trip to the Canadian Rockies.

Jim enjoyed a life-long passion for travel, and loved exploring new places, cultures, architecture, and cuisine all over the world. He also kept busy in retirement by serving his church community as a Trustee, singing his heart out in the choir and even appearing in some of the church musical productions, including The Music Man and The King and I.  He loved jazz and big band music and often on the weekends he would be seated in front of the TV rooting for his favorite teams---the NY Yankees and Penn State football. Given his background in journalism, he also closely followed current events and read the New York Times cover to cover every day.

Jim is survived by his wife, Marianne, son, Scott Ritter and wife Huichong of Tennessee, daughter, Amy Whited and husband Phil of Colorado, his brother Norm Ritter and wife Mary of North Carolina and their two children Eric Ritter and Andrea Ritter.

He is preceded in death by his parents Gerda and Marvin Ritter and Aunt Mary Ritter.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider a donation in Jim’s memory to either Packanack Community Church Music Fund or the American Cancer Society.