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Daniel Anthony Ritchie
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Entrepreneur, conservationist.
Born Daniel Anthony Repchinsky at Heith, Alberta on 18 October 1924, he was raised on a farm near Battleford, Saskatchewan. After service in the Air Force, he spent several years in the food service industry at the Toronto International Airport. He later moved to Winnipeg where he established Industrial Catering and Continental Catering. In the late 1950s, he operated a chain of seven drive-in restaurants known as the Millionaire Drive Inns.
In the late 1960s, he commissioned construction of the River Rouge and Lady Winnipeg cruise ships. They were designed to operate on the Red River from the University of Manitoba to the mouth of Lake Winnipeg, with a stop at Lower Fort Garry being especially popular. In 1979, he built a fleet of double-decker tourist buses to operate around Winnipeg. He also owned 1,000 acres of farm land near Otterburne. He received a City of Winnipeg Community Service Award (1971).
In his later years, he developed a sanctuary for wild and domestic animals in a former gravel quarry northeast of Winnipeg, and restored the vegetation in the area. It became known as the Pine Ridge Wildlife Sanctuary and control was transferred to the Manitoba Habitat Conservancy after his death.
He died at Winnipeg on 10 September 2011 and was buried in the Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens. He was survived by two sons.
See also:
Remembering the Riverboats by Adrian Ames
Manitoba History, Number 49, June 2005Northern Prairie Ships: Lady Winnipeg
Northern Prairie Ships: River Rouge
The Life and Legacy of Commodore D. A. Ritchie by Bill Redekop, 2023.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 13 September 2011.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 20 October 2024
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