As the latest faculty member to the earn the coveted Ohio Professor of the Year distinction, John Ritter devotes his life to active inquiry, applied learning, and every student’s personal and professional success.
By Karen Gerboth ’93. Photos by Erin Pence ’04.
To hear Professor of Geology John Ritter talk about his childhood is to witness the liberal arts in action. One of 10 children (No. 6 he says with a shy smile), Ritter recalls with ease the frequent fossil-finding trips his mother often took him on near their home in Port Clinton, Ohio.
“To walk across an extensive bed of trilobites just to collect a few was astounding,” Ritter remembers of one such mother-son adventure. “My mom was very interested in science, and she always made sure to spend time with each one of us trying to figure out our individual interests and gifts.”
The process of discovery extended into other facets of the Ritter home. Whether it was voraciously reading or doing chores, biking 5.5 miles to wash dishes for a part-time job or baking with his father, Ritter grew up in a hands-on learning environment, where discovering something new defined many of his days.
“I remember stopping at the Chase Park Hotel in St. Louis once because Dad had always thought it made the best cheesecake from his days in medical school. We sat in the parking lot while he tried it. He then would spend several years trying to replicate the taste. The same with Fritos, plum pudding, bagels – always trying to master the taste.”
Perhaps it’s the “tasting” of life that has since led Ritter to inspire generations of students to lead their own lives of active inquiry as they solve pressing problems close to home and around the world.
“I am in a profession where students can learn science by doing science, getting their hands dirty working on real problems,” Ritter says. “Teaching goes way beyond the classroom in my field. ‘Hands-on experience’ is literal in geology, and I thrive at creating opportunities for students to examine real problems, collect data with the tools that geologists and environmental scientists use, and propose solutions that can be acted upon.”
Nominated for the Ohio Professor of the Year award by faculty colleagues, university administrators and students, Ritter, who said he is “both honored and humbled by the recognition,” specializes in geomorphology and environmental geology. For a brief time, Ritter originally considered a career in industry after completing his master’s degree, but his interest quickly turned to teaching and research as he enjoyed graduate school so much. His mentor at Penn State, Tom Gardner, also inspired him to pursue this path.
“Tom was the mentor to me that I hoped to be for my students,” says Ritter, noting that if not for Tom, he might not be at Wittenberg.
“Back then, jobs were posted on a bulletin board, and Tom pointed at the one for Wittenberg. The deadline was the next day,” Ritter remembers. “I had never FedEx’d anything in my life until then.”
And Wittenberg is thankful he did as are the students he has mentored throughout his 24-year tenure.
Following the announcement of his Ohio Professor of the Year award, Ritter received hundreds of congratulatory notes and emails, many from alumni, as well as a special delivery of homemade honey from Isaac Barnes ’99.
“Dr. Ritter involves himself as much as possible in the lives of his students,” Barnes says, “and he never forgets a name.
He believes in your potential, and I know I strove to aspire to what he thought I could be.”
Other students point out how Ritter attends their activities and sporting events, invites them into his home regularly for dinner, helps them land internships or just takes time to chat in the hallway.
“Wittenberg is small enough and our students so genuine that meaningful relationships develop between faculty and students, which last much longer than the student’s time at Wittenberg,” Ritter explains. “These relationships are probably my favorite part of teaching here.”
His love of teaching and his commitment to students also benefit Springfield, where Ritter routinely uses the area’s community resources to engage his students in collaborative research – something that became even more meaningful following a diagnosis of thyroid cancer in 2003.
Before that, Ritter, whose cancer is is now being actively managed, often spent summers conducting research with students out west. Having to be in Ohio for treatment, however, allowed him to learn even more about the needs of his own hometown.
From evaluating the potential for a stream resource overlay district for county land use planning to studying urban wetland function to helping restore Springfield’s own Buck Creek, Ritter and his students are able to make a difference locally as they take the content from his courses and apply it in practical ways.
“Becoming a part of a community and being active in it allows you and the community to grow,” says Ritter, who serves in several leadership capacities, including on the board of the Clark County Soil and Water Conservation District and the Tecumseh Land Trust, as well as an expert consultant/researcher on multiple projects.
“I have a real sense of fulfillment when I consider the collaboration I have enjoyed with members of the Springfield and Clark County community, and I hope my students do, too,” Ritter says. “Though our impact on the science is modest, our lasting impact on the community can be significant.”
Listening to him explain his favorite course, Geology 112, the Hydrologic Cycle, makes his impact in the classroom equally evident.
“It’s a general education course taught to non-science students that satisfies Wittenberg’s Natural World learning goal, which states that ‘students should gain an understanding of the natural world through scientific inquiry,’” he says.
As part of the course, students construct their knowledge of the hydrologic cycle “by collecting and analyzing data on water locally and regionally, utilizing the campus environment, parks and public lands, and private lands to study rainfall, soil moisture, infiltration and runoff, groundwater and caves, and streams and stream flow.”
In essence, the course helps students shift the notion of content delivery to active inquiry, teaching them in the process to think like a scientist would think.
“Students need to be able to go outside the textbook,” Ritter says. “We are all stewards of our environment, and I want my students to be able to evaluate life decisions more critically because life is hardly ever in a textbook.”