Clifford Darlington Rittenhouse^{[1, 2]}

1917 - 1995  (77 years)

• Name	Clifford Darlington Rittenhouse
  Born	17 Oct 1917	Pennsylvania
  Gender	Male
  Died	4 Aug 1995
  Buried	Millersville Mennonite Cemetery, Millersville, Pennsylvania
  Person ID	I6048	My Reynolds Line | Descendants of Henry Reynolds
  Last Modified	18 Aug 2021

  
  

  Father	Harry Hartman Rittenhouse,   b. 7 Jan 1892, Pennsylvania ,   d. 9 Jun 1933, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania  (Age 41 years)
  Mother	Mabel M. Reynolds,   b. 2 Jan 1892, Reading, Pennsylvania ,   d. 30 Mar 1940, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  (Age 48 years)
  Family ID	F2410	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Sources

  [S4] Deborah Lozano, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=58536800. [S42] Obituary. CLIFFORD RITTENHOUSE, POLITICAL CANDIDATE, PROLIFIC LETTER-WRITER Sunday News (Lancaster, PA) - Sunday, August 6, 1995 Clifford Darlington Rittenhouse, 77, of 71 Madge Drive, died Friday evening at St. Joseph Hospital following a long illness. He had been a resident at Heatherbank Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Columbia for seven months prior to his death. The Rittenhouse name was well-known locally for its frequent appearance in the "letters to the editor" columns in all three Lancaster Newspapers. He wrote well over 100 letters, usually to express concern for family values. Rittenhouse was also a political letter writer, and had received letters from every U.S. President since Truman. He also wrote to, and got replies from, such notables as J. Edgar Hoover, Sen. Hubert Humphrey, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and former presidential contender Adlai Stevenson. "All my life, I've been interested in government," said Rittenhouse in a 1982 newpaper feature about his letter-writing hobby. "I like writing. I don't write nasty letters. I'm specific. I try not to be offensive. While I've written letters that didn't suit some people, I try to accept criticism gracefully." At one time a Democrat, he left that party and became an active Republican in 1972, working for the election of Richard Nixon as U.S. president. He was a Republican committeeman involved in local, state and national campaigns. Rittenhouse himself was an American Independent Party candidate for the state Legislature in 1970 and a Constitutional Party candidate for the office of clerk of criminal courts in 1971. In 1972, he ran for the 96th District seat in the state House of Representatives as an independent Democrat, but was beaten in the primary by Millersville professor G. Terry Madonna. He was the husband of Audrey Holloway Rittenhouse. The couple celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary in January. Rittenhouse was formerly married to Esther E. Rittenhouse, who died in 1985. He worked in the building security department at Fulton Bank until his retirement in 1985. He was a member of Millersville Bible Church. Born in Lancaster and a lifelong resident of Lancaster County, he was the son of the late Harry and Mabel Reynolds Rittenhouse. In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Nancy L. Wood, Mount Joy, and Virginia M., wife of Phillip R. Smith, Mountville; six grandsons; two stepdaughters, Donna, wife of Thomas Bartholow, Huron, S.D.; and Sandra Zimmerman, Lancaster; three stepsons: Paul William Tobias, of the Poconos; Gilbert Tobias, Lancaster; and Harry Tobias, Groton, Conn.; 12 stepgrandchildren; one brother, Lloyd Rittenhouse, Lancaster; and one sister, Ruth, wife of Charles Rhoades, San Tee, Calif.