What he does: Ritz coordinates operations for the “natatorium” (a building complex with a swimming pool for the uninitiated) at Rutgers-Newark’s Golden Dome Athletic Center. He hires, trains, and schedules lifeguards; programs aquatic offerings, such as first aid clinics, kayaking classes, and the master’s swim club; and ensures the water is clean and chemically balanced. Ritz also organizes swim activities for community youth groups and organizations in Newark and teaches several courses.
Water safety, a lifelong mission: Ritz is a professional rescuer. Trained in all aspects of first aid – from how to operate an external defibrillator to small craft safety – he instructs lifeguards on how to save lives and pool operators on the careful use of pesticides. Back in 1986, Ritz served on the state Department of Health committee that developed the state public recreational bathing codes, regulating safety and sanitary standards. In 2000, the American Red Cross presented him with the National Health and Safety Service Award. (He had helped the organization develop its water safety instruction course in 1992.)
Filling a hole: Ritz was physical education specialist at Rutgers’ School of Applied Health Sciences in 1990, when the university tapped him to open the Sonny Werblin Aquatic Complex on the Busch campus. “When I arrived, there was literally a hole in the ground,” he recalled. He hired 45 lifeguards, set up procedures and protocols, and opened the pool, which, he said, was a huge success. “The folks on Busch were ecstatic.”
Born to water: Ritz grew up on the Long Island Sound, swimming and boating. He majored in physical education at Culver-Stockton College in Missouri and earned a master’s in physical education at SUNY Buffalo. His first job: health teacher/ football and swim coach at Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, N.Y., followed by a stint in the U.S. Army. As a sergeant at Fort David and at the Canal Zone in Panama, he ran a recreation program for enlisted men and their wives. After the Army, he became the aquatic director and swim coach for the men’s and women’s swim teams at Old Dominion University in Virginia, and in 1977 joined Rutgers. “I left competitive sports when I left Old Dominion,” Ritz said. “I couldn’t see doing that for the next 25 years, when I found teaching and aquatics management so much more interesting.”
An inner city challenge: When he heard that Newark planned to open an eight-lane pool, Ritz jumped at the chance to apply. “I knew what it took to get a pool going and saw an inner-city school as a new challenge,” he said. In 1993, he was hired to fill the pool in the Golden Dome Athletic Center. Newark’s pool is smaller – there are 15 lifeguards as opposed to 35 at Werblin – and inculcating safety standards has been an uphill battle, especially when it comes to the church and community groups that lease the pool in the summer and on weekends. “In Piscataway, a near-drowning was a rare event. We saved four lives in 14 years. In my 13 years in Newark, we’ve saved 118,” he said. “Often, counselors don’t know what do when a child’s having trouble. My guards have to go in.” Now Ritz lectures on water safety in Newark during the summer. He instructs counselors and groups from Newark that rent out the facility on how to teach swimming, what drowning kids look like, and gives them the tools they need – like buddy checks every 10 minutes – so that “when they take their trips to the state lake, no one will drown.” He also lectures at state and national conferences, teaches water safety clinics at a variety of institutions, and hopes to set up a pool management seminar in the near future at Rutgers that will incorporate all his years of experience.
All in the family: Ritz married late in life. He met his wife, Karen, at a Red Cross Aquatics School summer course in Lenox, Mass. in 1984. She loves the water as well. In fact, Karen is the associate director of recreation at William Paterson University where she – what else – manages the aquatic program. The Ritzes are not a couple that like to sit around. They enjoy traveling and spending time on their sailboat; they just sailed in the British Virgin Islands. Both like to ski – snow is preferable to water in this case. But they have their recreational differences: He’s a canoe man; she likes to kayak.
Water safety, a lifelong mission: Ritz is a professional rescuer. Trained in all aspects of first aid – from how to operate an external defibrillator to small craft safety – he instructs lifeguards on how to save lives and pool operators on the careful use of pesticides. Back in 1986, Ritz served on the state Department of Health committee that developed the state public recreational bathing codes, regulating safety and sanitary standards. In 2000, the American Red Cross presented him with the National Health and Safety Service Award. (He had helped the organization develop its water safety instruction course in 1992.)
Filling a hole: Ritz was physical education specialist at Rutgers’ School of Applied Health Sciences in 1990, when the university tapped him to open the Sonny Werblin Aquatic Complex on the Busch campus. “When I arrived, there was literally a hole in the ground,” he recalled. He hired 45 lifeguards, set up procedures and protocols, and opened the pool, which, he said, was a huge success. “The folks on Busch were ecstatic.”
Born to water: Ritz grew up on the Long Island Sound, swimming and boating. He majored in physical education at Culver-Stockton College in Missouri and earned a master’s in physical education at SUNY Buffalo. His first job: health teacher/ football and swim coach at Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, N.Y., followed by a stint in the U.S. Army. As a sergeant at Fort David and at the Canal Zone in Panama, he ran a recreation program for enlisted men and their wives. After the Army, he became the aquatic director and swim coach for the men’s and women’s swim teams at Old Dominion University in Virginia, and in 1977 joined Rutgers. “I left competitive sports when I left Old Dominion,” Ritz said. “I couldn’t see doing that for the next 25 years, when I found teaching and aquatics management so much more interesting.”
An inner city challenge: When he heard that Newark planned to open an eight-lane pool, Ritz jumped at the chance to apply. “I knew what it took to get a pool going and saw an inner-city school as a new challenge,” he said. In 1993, he was hired to fill the pool in the Golden Dome Athletic Center. Newark’s pool is smaller – there are 15 lifeguards as opposed to 35 at Werblin – and inculcating safety standards has been an uphill battle, especially when it comes to the church and community groups that lease the pool in the summer and on weekends. “In Piscataway, a near-drowning was a rare event. We saved four lives in 14 years. In my 13 years in Newark, we’ve saved 118,” he said. “Often, counselors don’t know what do when a child’s having trouble. My guards have to go in.” Now Ritz lectures on water safety in Newark during the summer. He instructs counselors and groups from Newark that rent out the facility on how to teach swimming, what drowning kids look like, and gives them the tools they need – like buddy checks every 10 minutes – so that “when they take their trips to the state lake, no one will drown.” He also lectures at state and national conferences, teaches water safety clinics at a variety of institutions, and hopes to set up a pool management seminar in the near future at Rutgers that will incorporate all his years of experience.
All in the family: Ritz married late in life. He met his wife, Karen, at a Red Cross Aquatics School summer course in Lenox, Mass. in 1984. She loves the water as well. In fact, Karen is the associate director of recreation at William Paterson University where she – what else – manages the aquatic program. The Ritzes are not a couple that like to sit around. They enjoy traveling and spending time on their sailboat; they just sailed in the British Virgin Islands. Both like to ski – snow is preferable to water in this case. But they have their recreational differences: He’s a canoe man; she likes to kayak.