In 1904, Grace Erb was a student at Michigan State Normal College when she became a member of Alpha Sigma Tau. It was the sorority’s Alpha and only chapter. After graduation she taught in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
She remained close to her sorority. In 1923, she played a role in the organization of the Grand Rapids Alumnae Chapter. She was a delegate to Alpha Sigma Tau’s first convention which was held in Detroit on October 8, 1925. There she became the first National President. She was reelected at the second convention.
As National President, she served as the delegate to the Association of Education Sororities. She recounted her effort in an early Anchor article:
On Sunday, January 23, 1927, I made a very hurried trip across state to meet Miss Mabel Lee Walton (Sigma Sigma Sigma), president of the Association of Educational Sororities. It was a pleasure, particularly as four of the national presidents were present upon that occasion, so that we had an opportunity to see and hear the leaders in the nationalizing movement of educational sororities.
Upon Ritchie’s resignation, Ada Norton, an early Alpha Sigma Tau advisor, wrote in the June 1928 Anchor:
The first years of an organization are vital ones in its history and to be willing to assume the responsibility of leadership at such a time shows the true worth of Mrs. Ritchie [Grace]. The two and one half years have been marked by steady growth and stabilization so that today we are on a much stronger national basis than when she accepted the responsibility of leadership in November 1925. The topic assigned to her at the ‘open’ meeting of the AES Conference in Denver was ‘Sorority Friendship.’ Her treatment of it revealed her high ideal of friendship and reflected great credit upon her and Alpha Sigma Tau. May I express our heartfelt thanks to her for the time she has done, and ask her to lend us her wise counsel to the furtherance of our efforts to attain the highest standards possible for women in the field of education.
From 1929 through 1951 she was principal of Stocking Elementary School in Grand Rapids. Although she was not an Alpha Sigma Tau founder, she was certainly a builder. The foundation she laid has served her sorority well.
Ritchie died on March 2, 1954 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
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