Virginia Ricker began her teaching career at Hublersburg High School, and Abington High School and went on to teach at Dickinson College, and the Penn State Center at Harrisburg. She became a full-time faculty member in the Speech Department, and later, in the English Department at Penn State’s University Park Campus. One of her courses, “Careers for Women,” was the foundation of the Women’s Studies Program at Penn State. She was the advisor to the Penn State Chapter of the English Honorary, Sigma Tau Delta, and served on its national board. She taught for forty years, retiring from Penn State in 1970.
She was a member of the Penn State Alumni Council and the Penn State Foundation Board.
She and her husband, Dr. Ralph Ricker spent summer vacations at the Mokoma Inn and were early Lake Mokoma Association members. They owned a cabin in Laporte for almost fifty years. Virginia loved driving the roads of Sullivan County and sitting by the Lake.
She is survived by two daughters: Mary Virginia Ricker Wilkes and her husband George Wilkes of Arlington, Virginia and Heather Dale Ricker-Gilbert and her husband Harvey R. Gilbert, of State College. She is also survived by six grandchildren: Burch, Christopher and Cabell Wilkes and Jacob, Rebecca Dale, and Alexander Ricker-Gilbert and by seven great grandchildren: Caroline, Ricker, Charlotte, Chase, George, Delia, and Evan Wilkes.
A memorial service in celebration of Virginia Ricker’s life will be held at Zion Lutheran Church, Boalsburg, PA on Sunday, November 11 at 2:00 p.m. Friends will be received starting at 1:00 that afternoon.
Contributions in Virginia’s memory may be made to the Centre Foundation, Inc for the Virginia Dale Ricker Scholarship Fund at the State College High School, P. O. Box 648, State College, PA 16804; or to the Mt. Nittany Conservancy, P.O. Box 296, State College, PA 16804.