Victor Frank Ridder (April 4, 1886 – June 14, 1963) was a newspaper publisher and civic leader in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for many decades in the early 20th century. Victor and his brothers

Bernard H. Ridder Bernard H. Ridder (March 20, 1883 – May 5, 1975) was an American newspaper publisher who was the chairman emeritus of Ridder Publications. Biography Ridder was one of the sons of Herman Ridder, who founded the New York German‐language news ...

and

Joseph E. Ridder Joseph Edward Ridder (April 4, 1886 – April 21, 1966) was an American newspaper publisher who was the chairman of Ridder Publications. He was the son of newspaper magnate Herman Ridder. Biography Ridder was born on April 4, 1886 to Herman R ...

were the owners and publishers of the

New Yorker Staats-Zeitung The ''New Yorker Staats-Zeitung'', nicknamed ''"The Staats"'', claims to be the leading German language, German-language weekly newspaper in the United States and is one of the oldest, having been published since the mid-1830s. In the late 19th c ...

, the premier daily newspaper of German-speaking residents of the

area, which they had inherited from their father

Herman Ridder Herman Ridder (March 5, 1851 – November 1, 1915) was an American newspaper publisher and editor. Biography Ridder was born in New York City, of German Catholic parents. Because of his parents' financial difficulties, Ridder had to leave school a ...

. Victor Ridder was active in the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...

as a volunteer leader in

for many years. In 1912, he helped organize New York's first Catholic parish troop, and within a couple of years became a National BSA volunteer with responsibility for promoting Catholic Scouting. He was a co-founder in 1922 of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, and was later recognized by the National Council BSA for his distinguished service to youth with the

Silver Buffalo Award The Silver Buffalo Award is the national-level distinguished service award of the Boy Scouts of America. It is presented for noteworthy and extraordinary service to youth on a national basis, either as part of, or independent of the Scouting pro ...

. He served as president of the New York State Board of Social Welfare from 1929 to 1939, and as New York City administrator of the Works Progress Administration from October 1935 until his resignation in July 1936 (effective August 1.). Ridder was survived by sons Walter Thompson Ridder (1917-1990),

Robert Ridder Robert Blair Ridder (July 21, 1919 – June 24, 2000) was an American ice hockey administrator, media businessman, and philanthropist. He was the founding president of the Minnesota Hockey, Minnesota Amateur Hockey Association, and managed the ...

(1919-2000), daughters Joan Ridder Challinor (1927-2018), Gretchen Ridder Nicholas (1915-), Esther Margaret Ridder (1925-2014), and second wife Ruth O'Day Ridder (1886-1969). Ridder was predeceased by daughter Mary Hartmann Ridder (1912-1960) and first wife Marie Thompson Ridder (1885-1935). His company, founded by his father, Ridder Publications, Inc., later merged with Knight Newspapers, Inc. in 1974, and operated under the name

Knight Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, it was the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspaper brand ...

until 2006, when the company was purchased by

The McClatchy Company The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states and ...

References

1886 births 1963 deaths 20th-century American newspaper publishers (people) American Roman Catholics Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Ridder family {{US-journalist-19thC-stub