Photo by Tom Campbell

Since his retirement, Bob Ritchie has gone back to school as a full-time substitute teacher at McCutcheon High School near Lafayette

In 1960, a 19-year-old Bob Ritchie tagged along with a friend on a student teaching assignment. It led to a career decision for Ritchie, BS ’63, but not in the way you would expect.

“I spent a week with a friend in a classroom, and I thought to myself that classroom teaching just wasn’t the career for me,” Ritchie says.

Well, what a difference 48 years can make.

Retired since 1998 from Purdue Extension’s 4-H program, Ritchie is now a full-time substitute teacher at McCutcheon High School, just south of Lafayette.

“Being a substitute teacher is something that you have to learn to be good at,” Ritchie says. “At first, when a teacher didn’t have time to leave a lesson plan for me, I would get nervous. But now I just realize that I will learn with the students that day.”

Ritchie says he likes substitute teaching because it is so structured: He teaches from a lesson plan during the school hours, the bell rings, and he goes home. But there is more to it.

“I love being with kids and watching them grow up,” he says. “Plain and simple, I just like it.”

Ritchie started substituting soon after his retirement as a way of keeping busy and giving back to the community.

“Whatever was in need, I did it and never turned it down,” he says. “I would teach first-graders one day and high school seniors the next.”

His full-time post means his educational focus now is entirely on students in grades 9–12.

“Bob always has such a positive attitude with all types of students,” says McCutcheon principal John Beeker. “He always stops and talks with them about their interests and is always upbeat with everyone.”

And not just in the school building. Ritchie especially enjoys it when current or former students bump into him around town and stop to chat.

“I’m a talker — I’ll chat with anyone,” Ritchie acknowledges.