Daniel Ritchie, a former chancellor of the University of Denver, died Thursday evening, according to university officials.
Ritchie, who served as DU’s 16th chancellor from 1989 to 2005, was widely recognized in Denver as a civic leader and a prominent financial supporter of the arts and education.
“He wasn't giving money because he wanted his name on the wall,” Gail Klapper, the current president of the Colorado Forum, said. “He was giving money to make things better. It was really the best part of him.”
Klapper, who has been a member of the Colorado Forum — a nonpartisan organization made up of leaders from around the state — since 1989, says she can’t remember when she first met Ritchie because he was so "ubiquitous."
“He was everywhere,” she said. “I think Dan's character was truly remarkable and the things that he did for individuals who nobody else was paying attention to. He lifted up everybody, he truly listened and was empathetic with everybody… He had an enormous impact on the state.”
Before coming to DU, Ritchie had recently retired as CEO of Westinghouse Broadcasting, which owned and operated radio and television stations across the United States.
During his tenure at DU, he was widely known as the “cowboy chancellor,” as he owned and operated one of the largest cattle ranches in Colorado, just outside of Kremmling — a lifelong dream of Ritchie’s.
According to university officials, when Ritchie assumed his role as chancellor in 1989, the institution was facing a “financial crisis and shrinking enrollments.” At the time, Ritchie was a “comfortably retired executive spending most of each day aside his horse,” as The Denver Post reported.
Ritchie was already nearly 60. His career had also included time as an executive at the media conglomerate MCA in Hollywood, and even an entrepreneurial try at organic foods. But it was Bill Coors, of the Coors family, who helped to convince Ritchie to take the DU job.
Ritchie became not just the university’s leader, but also a nine-figure financial supporter.
In an oral history, Ritchie described how he donated roughly $100 million to the University of Denver after selling ranches he owned in both California and Colorado. When asked why he decided to sell his beloved land and donate the nine-figure sum, Ritchie said, “I'm not quite sure why… but no, it was needed to do what needed to be done.”
“The ranch in Santa Barbara really paid for much of the engineering and computer science facility,” Ritchie told the interviewer. “And the Colorado ranch was sold in pieces to do different things that needed to be done. And I had often said that I would keep the ranches until either the sheriff took them or the undertaker. I was wrong.”
DU named its athletics complex the Daniel L. Ritchie Center for Sports & Wellness in recognition of his contributions. As chancellor, he had overseen the university’s transition into Division I for all athletics. Some teams were already playing DI, but Ritchie brought the entire athletics program to the top tier by joining the Sun Belt Conference in 1999.
“Nobody cares whether you're the national champion in Division II, and you can't attract the quality of student. And I really believe that athletics is more important than people generally realize ,” he said in the 2018 oral history. “It teaches you teamwork, it teaches you a commitment, discipline, putting the team before yourself.”
DU’s current leadership said Ritchie transformed the university.
“Dan’s tireless advocacy for DU is now the stuff of legend,” said Jeremy Haefner, the institution’s current chancellor. “He presided over a fundraising campaign that allowed DU to make more than $400 million in investments in new facilities and infrastructure. ”
After stepping down as chancellor in 2005, Ritchie served as the chairman of the university’s board of trustees for two years and later became a lifelong honorary trustee. He went on to be the chairman and CEO of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Ritchie retired in 2014 at age 82.
“There aren’t adequate words to express Dan Ritchie’s impact on the University of Denver. His love of this institution was contagious,” Haefner said in a statement. “By getting others to see our potential, he built us up, literally and figuratively. Dan was known not just for his steady and visionary leadership. He was also known for his deep commitment to the people and institutions he held dear. DU has lost its greatest friend and champion.”
Ritchie was born in China Grove, N.C. in 1932 and graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Business School.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
