Nicholas 'Nick' Charles Ripperger

There will be a casual memorial gathering on Friday, September 5, 2025 beginning at 2 pm at the Pedersen Funeral Home in Morris, MN. Everyone is welcome, please come join us. After the gathering we will reconvene at the Old Number 1 in Morris.

Nicholas Charles Ripperger was born December 24, 1950, in Des Moines. Iowa, the son of Charles and Pauline (Peterson) Ripperger. Nick passed away on Saturday, August 9, 2025 in Barrett, MN. He was 74 years old.

Nick lived in Des Moines until the age of seven when the family moved to a small dairy farm near Harding, in Morrison County, Minnesota. He graduated from Little Falls High School in 1968, then attended college at the University of Minnesota, Morris where he graduated in 1972 with a B.A. in Philosophy. Nick subsequently moved to the Twin Cities where he had a number of part-time jobs, including as a counselor at the Arlington House. (A halfway house for teenage boys.) During this time he also lived in Eugene, Oregon for a few months. He then attended William Mitchell College of Law for a year in St. Paul.

From 1976 to 1992 Nick worked for Prudential Insurance, eventually as a group life and health insurance underwriter. It was there that he met Jan Shaw, and the two were married for a short time.

Tired of the big city and corporate environment, Nick moved to Morris in 1993, where he worked for the city of Morris before becoming a reporter for the Morris Sun/Tribune in 1994. He spent three years at the paper, the last as editor. It was there that he met Anne Erickson, and in July, 1997, the two married, then purchased and became the new publishers of the Herman Review and the Chokio Review. They purchased the Grant County Herald in 1999 and moved to Herman. Two years later they purchased the Hoffman Tribune. They ran the four newspapers until 2006, when they divorced. Anne retained ownership of the Herald, and Nick retained ownership of the three smaller papers.

In 2010 Nick merged the Herman and Hoffman papers into the Herman-Hoffman Tribune. In 2017 he sold that paper to Reed and Shelley Anfinson. Nick continued reporting for the Chokio Review until 2024, when he sold the Review to its long-time editor, Kay Grossman.

Nick was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) in October, 2023. He continued living at his home in Herman until August 2024, when he moved to Skyview Assisted Living in Morris. In April of 2025 he moved to the Barrett Care Center in Barrett, MN.

Nick enjoyed gardening, playing cards, reading newspapers, novels, and good science fiction. On occasion he fished (including a few years in the Herman Fishing League), enjoyed light camping, and long driving trips.

Nick had a lot to be proud of in his professional and civic career. He was a talented newspaper publisher, editor, and reporter for 30 years, winning four statewide awards from the Minnesota Newspaper Association. He was an essential member of the Herman Development Corporation, which was instrumental in raising funds for, and constructing the Herman Community Center. He served as treasurer of the Grant County DFL for eight years - as Nick commented, “A committee of brave souls who continued to persevere despite being all but abandoned by their Twin Cities counterparts.” Nick was also a successful grant writer, securing funds for a number of agriculturally related businesses, as well as for the Herman Community Center.

Nick turned his writing skills to playwriting in 2023 when he wrote “General Barrett’s Last Battle,” a play about General Theodore Harvey Barrett, Civil War Union Colonel and a prominent historical figure in Grant and Stevens counties. The play was performed by the Prairie Wind Players during Barrett’s Old Settlers’ Reunion in June of that year.

Nick’s true family were the friends he made over the years, particularly his life-long “Morris Free Scout” friends. He met them as a student at UMM Morris between 1968 and 1972. He is survived by those friends, as well as his friend and former wife, Anne O’Flynn, his sister Cindy, and all others who called him friend, “Danger,” or “Sieve.”

IN MEMORY OF NICK, PLEASE MAKE A DONATION TO YOUR LOCAL HUMANE SOCIETY.

Pedersen Funeral Home in Morris is in care of the arrangements for Nick.