Gene D. Ridenour, Emporia
1922 - 2007
Gene D. Ridenour, coach and history teacher at Emporia High School during the early 1950s, died Sept. 30, 2007, on his 85th birthday in Florida where he was living.
On Oct. 11, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel published a story by sports reporter Kent Mincer about Ridenour’s years at Grand Junction High School from 1954 to 1962 as football and basketball coach and history teacher, saying that “his former players and assistant coaches had nothing but high praise for Gene Ridenour.” According to former Emporian Jim Burch of Grand Junction, also a former teacher and coach, Ridenour “was an outstanding coach and excellent history teacher. I knew him under both circumstances and hasten to say he had a lifelong impact on me.”
Some of Ridenour’s players included Emporians “Gene and Jerry Hahn, Connie Hoffmans, Frank Becker, Joe and Johnny Powell, Bucky Burnell, Don Schrader, Walt Stoeppelworth, Bob Jaquith, Bob Zickefoose and Richard Solis, to name just a few who got their names (and often their picture) in the Saturday edition of the Gazette,” the reporter wrote.
Coach Ridenour moved to Mount Vernon, N.Y., in 1962 where he continued his career in education, coached for six more years and then worked in administration.