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 Amateur Hockey Association, and managed the United States men's national ice hockey team at the 1952 and 1956 Olympics. He was a director in the Knight Ridder media company which controlled several television and radio stations, and newspapers in Minnesota. His wealth allowed him to be a founding owner of the Minnesota North Stars and helped him provide funding for the construction of Ridder Arena at the University of Minnesota. For his work in hockey in the United States, he received the Lester Patrick Trophy, and was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame and the IIHF Hall of Fame.

Early life Robert Blair Ridder was born on July 21, 1919, in New York City. He was the fifth of seven children to parents Victor F. Ridder and Marie Thompson, and the grandson of Herman Ridder. As a youth he became interested in hockey attending New York Rangers games at the Old Madison Square Garden. He graduated from Harvard University, and served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II. He married Kathleen Culman and moved to Duluth, Minnesota in 1943.

Hockey career Ridder began his ice hockey career in 1943 with the Duluth Heralds, an amateur senior ice hockey team in the Duluth Industrial Hockey League. In December 1947, the MAHA was formally accepted as a member of the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States (AHAUS), becoming the first state association to do so.

Media business Ridder worked in the family business Ridder Publications, which merged into the Knight Ridder media company. His media career began by reporting news for WEBC, and several newspapers in the Minnesota area including the Duluth News Tribune, Grand Forks Herald, Saint Paul Dispatch, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He purchased WDSM radio in 1948, and became its president.

Later life and honors Ridder died on June 24, 2000, at his home in Mendota Heights, Minnesota.

Ridder received the AHAUS citation award in 1967, for of contributions towards American amateur hockey He was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1976. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 1998, in the builder category. He was posthumously inducted in the inaugural class of the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2001. The University of Minnesota awards the "Kathleen C. and Robert B. Ridder Scholarship" annually to a student athlete on the Golden Gophers women's ice hockey team.