Bequest Increases Endowment Fund to $1.8M

The Madison Public Library Foundation was a recipient of a bequest from the Estate of Robert J. Ritger. To ensure the financial well-being of the Madison Public Library, MPLF By-Laws stipulate that all undesignated bequests to the Foundation are placed in our Endowment Fund. The MPLF Endowment Fund is held at the Madison Community Foundation. To date, cumulatively, MPLF Endowment Funds held at the Madison Community Foundation now total over $1.8M – a significant increase from last year.

Mr. Ritger passed away on August 12, 2007, at the family home where he had lived his entire life. Mr. Ritger graduated from Edgewood High School in 1952 and attended the UW. Most of his working life was spent in the Corporate Division of the Secretary of State, of the State of Wisconsin, from which he retired in 2004. A dutiful son, loyal friend and devoted foster parent to many, he led a quiet, unobtrusive life filled with many small acts of kindness for his friends and neighbors. Mr. Ritger loved the city of Madison and his Westside neighborhood. He was a voracious reader and dogged researcher and through the years acquired an encyclopedic knowledge of the city, its architecture, people and events. He enjoyed fine literature, classic film and music and was an accomplished gourmet chef. (Courtesy of Madison.com)

Posted on September 3, 2008.