Mack Ritchie

1925 - 2008

Born in Litchfield, Illinois Mack Lee Ritchie was the only child of a plumber who invented several plumbing control devices. Mack demonstrated an early interest in drawing, perhaps influenced by the technical drawings his father produced.

Ritchie briefly attended the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill before enlisting in the U.S. Navy during World War II and being sent to flight school in Pensacola, Florida. During the War, Ritchie flew a Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber and he continued to fly as a private pilot after the War for the remainder of his life. After the War, he attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana on the G.I. Bill, earning a civil engineering degree.

While working for an engineering firm in Chicago, Ritchie was sent to Palm Beach for a company project. There he befriended architect John Volk. He eventually decided to move to Florida and establish Ritchie and Crocker Engineers, Inc., based in Palm Beach. While overseeing his firm, Ritchie managed to also find time to serve two terms as a Palm Beach Town Councilman and two terms as the Mayor.

Mack Ritchie was somewhat of a renaissance man. In addition to being a pilot and engineer, he was an accomplished pianist and artist. But at heart, Mack Ritchie was always a painter. Ritchie’s paintings were shown in several Palm Beach galleries. His highly detailed paintings often featured old, abandoned buildings and two Turkey Vultures circling in the distance, references to the fleeting nature of life.

Interestingly, when they were kids, Mack Ritchie’s son, Tom, helped save one of this collector’s daughters from drowning when she fell off a dock in Palm Beach and was being swept away by the tide. Later, as a young man, Tom followed in his father’s footsteps, working as a painter and illustrator. Today he is a naturalist working with National Geographic.

Mack Ritchie moved the family back to Litchfield, Illinois to care for his aging parents and fittingly he lived out the remainder of his life where he was born and where he met his wife, Patricia Anne Ahren, whom he had known his entire life. Mack and Patricia were born just four days apart and two houses away in Litchfield. Patricia was an avid painter as well.

UNTITLED (BARN WITH WAGON IN THE FOREGROUND) Oil on Canvas 18 x 24 inches