WA6DYJ George Ritscher SK Arcata, CA {Humboldt county}

WA6DYJ Sk

George Ritscher

Humboldt County, CA, resident George Ritscher died in a car accident on October 4, 2011.
George was a kind and generous man with a keen intelligence and varied interests who will be sorely missed by family and friends.
Born April 9, 1941 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, he was raised by his parents Barbara L. Peabody and George Ritscher in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Needham, Massachusetts, and by his grandparents Lucy and Paul Peabody in Taylorville, Illinois.
As a child he played the trumpet, but later switched to baritone horn and euphonium, which he played during his college career at the University of Illinois and later in the Air Force Band. George was a well-known recording engineer who worked at Voice of America as well as with many important contemporary composers including John Cage, Lejaren Hiller, Lukas Foss, Sal Martirano and Wendy Mae Chambers.
In 1969, he worked closely with John Cage and Lejaren Hiller in the recording and production of HSPCHD. As best friend to Chambers, he supported her many endeavors and was instrumental in her creation of the original instrument the Car Horn Organ.
They met when George worked at the University of California in San Diego, where Chambers was a doctoral student, and quickly formed what was to become a lifelong friendship. George introduced Chambers to musical giant John Cage by arranging a bridge game, which Cage won.
George was employed in the 1980s by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (now National Labs) at the University of California, Berkeley, during which time he played euphonium in a number of brass bands. George became a devotee of Adi Da Samraj in the late 1990s and moved to Lake County, California, where he offered his technical skills to the First Room Theatre Guild.
He then moved north to Humboldt County in 2003 to serve the Adidam Community and to escape the heat. Since relocating he played with five bands: The Scotia Band, The Humboldt State University Symphonic Band, the Humboldt Bay Brass Band, the Eureka Brass and the North Coast Wind Ensemble. He often provided the sheet music from his private collection and was happy to lend instruments to local students.
George was an enthusiastic member of the Humboldt Amateur Radio Club, which he joined in 2006.
He also loved trains, especially the railways of the Northwest, and collected many books about their history. A "Celebration of George Ritscher's Life" was observed on Thursday, October 20 at 5:30 pm at the Fulkerson Recital Hall of Humboldt State University.
George is survived by his five siblings: Ann Peabody of Woburn, MA; James A. Ritscher of Arlington, MA; Karen L. Ritscher of New York, NY; David E. Ritscher of Newton, MA; and Lore E. Ritscher Noyes of Wilmington, DE. Please sign the guest book at www.Times-Standard.com, click obits.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/times-standard/obituary.aspx?n=george-ritscher&pid=154106752

73 K2HAT Lee Hatfield