William Ashford Ritter, Top Sailor And A Pioneer In Crab Processing

At work and at play, William Ashford Ritter maintained a lifelong relationship with the sea.

At the age of 21, he was a crew member of a sailing ship that competed in the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

He later went on to become head of a major Alaska fish-processing operation.

A pioneer in the processing of Alaska king crab, Mr. Ritter, a resident of Bellevue, died Aug. 24 in a Kirkland nursing home. He had been diagnosed with cancer.

Although he was born in the little Midwest town of Nevada, Iowa, Mr. Ritter grew up in Seattle.

He attended Lakeside School, graduated from the old Broadway High School and attended Washington State and Oregon State universities, the latter because at the time it provided instruction on food canning, said his wife, Mary Elizabeth Ritter.

Trained as a food chemist, Mr. Ritter began working in vegetable and fruit canneries in the Puget Sound area until America's involvement in World War II, when he enlisted and served aboard Army Transport vessels whose missions included landing troops in the Normandy invasion.

After the war, Mr. Ritter helped operate a clam cannery at the Indian village of Klawock on Prince of Wales Island, near Ketchikan.

But a few years later, he was one of the first to see the value of canning Alaska king crab and founded a cannery first in Homer, Alaska, and then on Kodiak Island.

In the late 1950s, Mr. Ritter decided it made more sense to work from a processing ship instead of a shore-based operation. His first processing vessel was the Mercator, based at Kodiak. The venture became Pan Alaska Fisheries Inc., of which he was president and a major stockholder until 1970.

Mr. Ritter then began a shrimp-processing company called Alaska Shell. He retired in 1975.

In the late 1960s, Mr. Ritter served as a member of the American Fisheries Advisory Board, representing the United States in negotiating fishing treaties with Japan and Russia.

A founder of Seattle's Corinthian Yacht Club, Mr. Ritter also was a member of the Seattle Yacht Club, the Rainier Club, the Harbor Club and St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Medina.

Besides his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Leslie Ritter of Seattle and Kathryn Moco of Goldendale, Klickitat County, and two grandchildren.

A memorial service was held, and there was cremation.

The family suggests remembrances to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Bellevue Medic One or Overlake Hospital.