George W. Ridge Jr., who helped establish many of the cornerstone programs at the University of Arizona School of Journalism as its only two-time director, died Wednesday in Tucson. He was 86.
Ridge underwent heart surgery in March but later suffered pneumonia. He died peacefully at Northwest Hospital, surrounded by family.
The versatile Ridge was a reporter at the Arizona Republic, city editor at the Arizona Daily Star and an assistant attorney general for the state before beginning his career as a UA journalism professor in 1968.
βGeorge Ridge taught me journalism when that word was universally respected β a calling with ethics and tenets, not for hobbyists,β said UA Journalism Professor Mort Rosenblum. βIn the mid-β60s, George was my city editor at the Arizona Daily Star, ruthless with hard facts, full of ideas, and attuned to βhuman anglesβ that connected readers to real news that mattered.β
As department head from 1972 to 1978, Ridge secured a deal to let students produce the Tombstone Epitaph. βAt the time, we were the only journalism department publishing a community newspaper 70 miles from campus,β said Ridge, who received a congratulatory letter from President Gerald Ford in 1976 for using the historic paper as a teaching tool.
Ridge helped support two more publications that allowed students to get practical experience: the Community News Service (now Arizona Sonora News) in 1973 and the ground-breaking bilingual newspaper El Independiente, founded by Professor Jacqueline Sharkey, in 1976. Ridge also served as department head from 1985 to 1991.
When Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles died in a car bombing in 1976, Ridge ensured the school was heavily involved in the media investigation that followed.
In 1978, Ridge was named the Arizona Newspaper Association Teacher of the Year, and in 2003 he was inducted into the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association Hall of Fame.
Ridge was born on March 26, 1933, in Alexandria, Louisiana, and graduated from Glendale High in Arizona. He began his professional journalism career while in college at Arizona State University, when he was hired by the Arizona Republic as a copy boy and obituary writer. Soon, he moved to sports.
After being drafted and assigned to Germany, Ridge began working for the Stars and Stripes military newspaper. As a news editor, he covered construction of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet invasion of Hungary, and the downing of Gary Powersβ U2.
After seven years at Stars and Stripes, Ridge returned to earn a law degree at the UA while also working full-time as city editor at the Arizona Daily Star. He served as an Arizona assistant attorney general from 1966 to 1968.
Although Ridge retired from the UA School of Journalism in 1994, he continued to work as a journalist and as a public affairs consultant to the U.S. Army, familiarizing officers with the news media and traveling to bases in the U.S., Korea, Japan, Germany, Italy and Africa. And in 2016, he started a travel blog, hoboshoes.net, with his family.
Ridge is survived by his wife, Earlene; daughters Carole Hale (David), Ellen Brown (Todd) and Whitaker (RC); son, Jim Ridge (Becky); nine grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Services are pending.
