Bill H Ritchie

My first 20 years Bill H Ritchie

In November 2016, Bill Ritchie decided it was a good time to write his story, his last signal. He joined the first two volumes of his memoir, covering the years 1941 to 1960 - the first generation of his life. He starts his life story with the end of it all - like a ghost giving a minute-by-minute account of the dumping of his life's work - the clearing out of his family's art gallery. Even his tools and supplies are thrown into the back of a junk truck, headed for the landfill. Does it have to end this way? He hopes not; but by picturing the end, he thinks that it won't end the way he describes it. Perhaps by telling his story, his life's work and his life may take on added value. Indeed, it may even help him finance his dream child if he tells how he came to this. People say you're crazy to look backward, that one should not live in the past; but he doesn't think he is because he sees the future in the past. Besides, it makes a difference when one can use the latest technologies to write and illustrate one's story. It may be game-like. He was around art and teaching most of his life, and he always dreamed he'd teach until he died, like his teachers. Unlike him, however, they didn't live into the future - the digital age when one can keep his or her past alive virtually. When he began his memoir, he allowed three years to cover almost eight decades. It wasn't his only activity, but other projects - development of the International Print Center Incubators and Workplaces, tracking the owners of the etching presses he designed, and meeting with people around his community - these he had to set aside for the interim.