James F. Ridgeway ’59

Jim was still immersed in his extraordinary life as a hard-hitting, muckraking, crusading journalist when he died of complications from shingles in Washington, D.C., Feb. 13, 2021. His book Blood in the Face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Nazi Skinheads and the Rise of a New White Culture, published 30 years ago, was so relevant that he added new material for a fresh edition out after his death. 

Jim, whose father was Class of 1923, prepared at the Hackley School, served as chairman of the Prince, and dined at Cloister. After graduation he worked for The Wall Street Journal, then The New Republic. Among his first exploits were articles about harassment of Ralph Nader ’55 and fatal flaws in motor vehicles. Nader told The Washington Post, “I have never met a more honest … reporter with such a thirst for justice.” 

As a DC-based columnist for The Village Voice for more than 30 years, Jim explored wrongdoing in high and low places. In a score of books and documentaries he exposed the evils of pollution and the environment, the sex industry, ties between universities and corporations, and much else. Leaving the Voice in 2006, he wrote for Mother Jones, among others. In recent years he focused on the suffering of prisoners in solitary, exchanging letters included in Hell Is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement.

To his wife, Patricia; his son, David; and brother, George ’64, the class extends deepest condolences.