Siblings, but no rivalry

When the weather turned too nasty for the St. Patrick Catholic School kindergartners to walk to an assisted living center to sing Christmas carols, Don Ridder called for a bus.

As the youngsters boarded, they told driver Tom Ridder, “Hi, grandpa.” And when they climbed off, “Thanks, grandpa.”

Now, Tom Ridder is no one's grandpa yet. He's the principal of Mount Michael Benedictine School, which is less than three miles from St. Patrick, where Don Ridder is principal.

And Tom is Don's brother.

Don says a nephew's wife, who teaches kindergarten at St. Patrick, put the tykes up to the “grandpa” stunt, although he admits that he had a bit to do with it.

For the two Ridder brothers and the Elkhorn-area Catholic schools they lead, such exchanges all are part of being good neighbors as well as brothers who have a little fun when they can.

On Saturday, Mount Michael will send staff and advanced science students to St. Patrick to help judge a science fair that the grade school is holding as part of Catholic Schools Week, which is being celebrated nationally this week.

The schools started a mentoring program last fall, with about 20 Mount Michael students regularly eating lunch or playing basketball with sixth- through eighth-grade St. Patrick boys.

Because St. Patrick doesn't have its own gym, its students use Mount Michael's gym when it's available, including playing most of its home seventh- and eighth-grade basketball games on the high school court. St. Patrick's boys practice football at Mount Michael, and the grade school holds its spring field day there.

The two schools occasionally have shared teachers, and when St. Patrick started its junior high several years ago, it sent three girls to Mount Michael to take higher level math classes that the fledgling school didn't yet offer.

A couple of weeks ago, Mount Michael moved its eighth-grade entrance exams to St. Patrick after snow clogged the roads to the boys school.

The brothers admit that the schools' relationship works so well because they are brothers.

As brothers, they look out for each other. They get each other's sense of humor. And they share the same background and principles, which they credit to their parents.

Henrietta and Frank Ridder Jr. raised 12 children on a farm west of West Point, Neb. Four daughters worked at a West Point nursing home to earn tuition money to help send the children to Catholic schools.

“With Mom and Dad,” said Don Ridder, “it was really our faith, family, education and hard work.”

Two other brothers also have careers in education. Big brother Norm is a school superintendent in Springfield, Ill. David coaches football at Central Catholic High School in West Point.

Brother Frank Jr., who is retired, now tutors at St. Patrick.

Tom, 54, and Don, 50, share a number of similarities. Both started their careers as business teachers. Both earned master's degrees and specialist certificates that allowed them to become K-12 principals or superintendents.

Don's wife, Brenda, teaches fifth grade at Harvey Oaks Elementary School in the Millard Public Schools. They have three children.

Tom's wife, Colleen, also a teacher by trade, home-schools the couple's three daughters. Their son, Eddie, is a junior at Mount Michael.

Both played college football and coached high school football. A couple of years ago, in fact, they coached together at Mount Michael, with Tom as head coach and Don as defensive coordinator. Tom hung up his whistle last year.

Don is in his 11th year at St. Patrick. He was hired a year before the school opened in August 2000. St. Patrick started with 80 students and now enrolls about 700. With its latest addition, it has room for 900. Tom is in his ninth year at Mount Michael.

Although the brothers rib each other, they're quick to give each other credit.

Don said Tom has done a good job at Mount Michael, bringing in good staff and making sure everyone lives up to expectations.

He can say that, he said, as a neighboring principal and as a parent. His son, Jake, graduated from Mount Michael and now is a junior and pre-med major at Northwest Missouri State University. The discipline and study skills his son learned at Mount Michael, Don said, are a big part of why he has doing so well.

Tom, in turn, noted that students from St. Patrick seem to be well-prepared to come to Mount Michael.

Both brothers said they promote the sense of family they learned at home in their schools. At the same time, they said, the schools would be unable to do what they do without the support of their respective religious communities.

“You do try to make things work together as a family,” Tom Ridder said.

Contact the writer:

444-1223, julie.anderson@owh.com