John Ritchie
March 10, 1934 - May 24, 2021
A Resident of Corralitos, California
John Ritchie was born on March 10, 1934 at the family home near the city of Strathcona, Minnesota and passed away on May 24, 2021 in his home at Corralitos, California. John was preceded in passing by his Father and Mother John A. and Meme Ritchie, by his brothers James, Willard, Bruce, and Donald, by his sisters Lucille and Edith and survived by his youngest brother Chuck Ritchie.He is also survived by his wife Bobi Ritchie, and sons and daughters in-law, Jeff and Deborah Ritchie, Tim and Lynette Ritchie, Todd and Terri Ritchie, Craig Ritchie, Bill and Peggy Ritchie and Tom and Shelly Ritchie and 16 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.
Life was not easy in the aftermath of the Great Depression and John being born on a small farm was introduced to hard labor at an early age, by the time he was six he was helping to clean up after and feed the farm animals. Even on good land farming is hard, Northern Minnesota is not good farm land. John remembers at the age of 10 and older getting paid to pick rocks out the farm fields that the winter freeze had up-heaved so the farmers could put in the spring crops. To this day there are miles of rock fences in Northern Minnesota many of them built by young children drafted at planting time to get the fields ready. John's school was a one room affair in which children of all grade levels attended from 1st grade to high school, the attendance varied but averaged between 10 to 12 students. John remembered never going to school for more than about 39 days in a row as at any time as he could be called on to help out on the farm. His formal education ended somewhere between the 6th and 7th grade at the ripe old age of 12 ½, as one day he came home to find his home had been abandoned. A local farmer took him in and for a while he lived in a tack room off of the barn and worked for the farmer for about six months for room and board only. Another farmer heard about it and offered him room and board and to actually pay him. The next few years of his life saw him moving from one job to the next, leaving that farm he walked 8 miles into the town of Strathcona where he met another young man and they hopped a train to North Dakota where he got a job in a potato cellar sorting potatoes, the job required employees to be at least 15 ½. John said he might have stretched the truth a bit when he told them he was 15 ½ , actually being 14 . When that job ended he hopped another train to Little Falls, Minnesota where he got a job skidding logs with a mule team to be loaded on wagons to be taken to the pulp mill. From then on as he said "if someone offered me a better job with more pay I took it as the only thing I had to sell was my time". He worked for a while for Caterpillar in St Paul, Minnesota where he picked up experience working with heavy equipment. John was later introduced to the world of sales when he went to work for a company called Holland Furnace in Chicago selling furnace cleaning jobs door to door, for which he was paid on commission, another salesman seeing John's people skills took him under his wing and taught him how to sell and after that he knew sales was somehow going to be in his future. He often said "the only limit in sales is the one you place on yourself".
John met Alice Lehman in 1952 and they soon married. Their first son Jeff was born in 1953. Unfortunately, their son suffered from asthma and the doctors told them that the best thing to do was to move to a warmer climate. Since Alice had a brother already living in Santa Cruz, California, they packed up what little belongings they had and moved to California in 1955, just in time for the flood. During the next 4 years John and Alice had three more sons, Tim, Todd and Craig. In Santa Cruz he worked at times for Toby's Rasp, Union Ice Company and West Food Mushrooms. He finally got back into sales when he went to work for Colonial Bakeries selling, on commission, bread and pastries door to door which he did for about 10 years. At the end of the period with Colonial Bakeries he was at his insurance agent's State Farm Insurance office and during a conversation with the district manager for State Farm was offered a chance to come in as an agent trainee. Mr. Holmes told him "we can teach people the insurance business but we cannot teach them people skills or salesmanship".
Apparently Mr. Holmes saw both of these qualities already in John. John sensed the opportunity in the insurance business and put all his energies into educating himself in the insurance business and building his agency. He was proud of the fact that of all the agent trainees accepted that year In Santa Cruz he was the only one to survive. He spent the next 30 years of his career continuing his insurance education, building his business, servicing his clients and winning many company awards.
Unfortunately, during these years of building his business took a toll on John and Alice's marriage and in 1974 they divorced. Subsequently, John and Bobi Rodgers married and John adopted Bill and Tom, her two sons from a previous marriage. Their marriage lasted for 45 plus years until his passing. John and Bobi spent many wonderful years traveling the United States, Canada and Alaska in their motor home both during his time with State Farm and during their retirement years "Full Timing It" in their motor home. After John and Bobi "hung up" their motor homing years they settled in Rancho Corralitos, in Watsonville, Ca, a retirement community where they enjoyed spending time with their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and the local residents of Rancho Corralitos. They became particularly close to Bobi's cousin Karen and her Husband Marty who lived next door to them. John adored them both, many times hearing him say "those are two of the finest people you could ever meet". Additionally one of John's favorite hobbies was fishing. He spent several years out on the ocean commercial fishing on the weekends with his boat the "Yellowfin". But his greatest pride was his family, going to his sons High School Football games and being involved with the "Good Sports" program, enjoying family get togethers and sometimes just dropping by for a visit or calling to just "check in" to see how things were going. John loved his family dearly and was loved in return by them. Our hearts are broken, he will be missed.
The Ritchie family would sincerely like to extend our deepest thanks to Hospice of Santa Cruz County in helping our family through this most difficult transition. John's wish was to spend his final time at home and his family wanted very much to grant him that wish. Anyone who has taken care of and helped a loved one pass at home knows how difficult it is physically, mentally and emotionally. Simply, we could not have done it without you. God Bless You All.
We also want to thank James and Jed, two care givers who helped us with Dad during these difficult times. I have never met two finer men. You do your parents proud. God Bless You Both. Due to continuing COVID restrictions private gravesite services and celebration of John's life were held on June 3, 2021. Memorial donations may be made to Hospice of Santa Cruz County, 920 Disc Dr. Scotts Valley, or to your favorite charity.

View the online memorial for John Ritchie