Rittschof—Beverly Rittschof died July 20, 2010, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s. She was 91.

Beverly was born Dec. 4, 1918, in Chicago, Ill., the second of Marcus and Lorena Johnson’s three girls.

She met Fred Rittschof on a blind date while they were attending the University of Illinois, where she was studying journalism. They married in 1938 and had four children.

The family lived in South Dakota, three cities in Illinois, and two in Arizona before returning to Chicago in 1951. Fred taught PE and coached football, wrestling and swimming in Chicago public high schools for more than 20 years. After retirement, he and Bev moved to Florence.

They were active in the Audubon Society, the California Club and the Republican Club. They were avid bridge players and golfers.

After Fred’s death, Beverly joined the Friends of the Siuslaw Public Library, serving as its President in 1991. In the 1980s she led the fundraising effort to construct the new library, which opened in December 1990. In addition to leading the fundraising efforts, Beverly was also a major donor, not only to the original construction in 1990, but the recent addition, dedicated in February 2010. She also volunteered countless hours mending and repairing damaged books and magazines.

Beverly served on the library’s elected governing Board of Directors from 1988 to 2004 and was President in 2001/02.

She was a world traveler, visiting the Galapagos, China, Russian, France, Australia and Spain, among others. She flew home from a trip to England on a Concord plane.

Bev moved to The Shorewood in 2004 and to Santa Maria, Calif., in 2007. She was preceded in death by her husband, Fred, and son, Fred, as well as her sisters Virginia and Frances. She is survived by daughters Bonnie (Rittschof) Cardone and Susan Rittschof, and son Dan (Joanne) Rittschof.

She leaves seven grandchildren: Pamela Cardone, Michael Cardone, Jeffrey (Kerri) Rittschof, Drew Rittschof, Duncan (Andrea) Rittschof, Jeanne Rittschof and Clare Rittschof; and five great-grandchildren.

No services are planned but donations can be made in her name to the Siuslaw Public Library, for the “Rittschof Memorial.”