Catching up with . . . Jim Ricci

The first time that I saw a Jim Ricci story in the Beacon Journal, in the 1970s, I had two immediate impressions:

1. This guy is a damn good writer.
2. He has an eye for details about the person he interviews, right down to the combat boots.

I was right both times. Since leaving the BJ, Jim worked for the Detroit Free Press and the Los Angeles Times, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and had Matthew Modine play him in “Redeemer,” a 2002 USA Network cable movie "inspired by" stories Jim wrote in Detroit to free Ahmad Rahman, a Black Panther imprisoned 20 years for a murder he didn’t commit. Jim also wrote the screenplay for the movie, which had little resemblance to the real people by the time Jim did rewrite after rewrite.

At my request, Jim sent me this email to catch us up on his life after the BJ:

I finally took a buyout from the L.A. Times and retired in May of last year. After 37 years in the newspaper business -- and getting the feeling that the walls were closing in on the profession -- I decided to hang up my spurs, and I haven't regretted for a moment doing so. I had the good fortune of working with good people at good papers throughout my career, first the Beacon, then the Detroit Free Press, then the Times, which I joined at age 50 and stayed with for the next dozen and a half years, working as a feature writer and columnist.

High points included being a Pulitzer and ASNE finalist in feature writing, and seeing a screenplay I wrote (it was based loosely on something I'd done as a columnist in Detroit) made into a television movie, "Redeemer," starring Matthew Modine.

I have two grown daughters, one of whom, Annie, is an opera singer who's established a non-profit in New York, and the other, Laura, an artist who lives here in Los Angeles. You can learn about them at their Web sites: www.operaontap.com, and www.lauraricci.net.

Their mother Kathy and I divorced after 30 years of marriage in 1999. Now I have a new family with my partner, Carrie, who is a TV and film executive. We have a son who just turned 10, and an eight-year-old daughter who was born on my 55th birthday. These days I spend much of my time attending to domestic stuff because my partner still works, as well as reading, practicing baseball with my son, and learning to play tennis.

I'm still in touch with some BJ alums of my era, notably Mike Clary, Larry Froelich, Mike Cull and Bill Hershey. Like "Stuberg" Feldstein, I have a lot of memories of the Beacon, from Pat Englehart's Denobili cigars to Ben Maidenburg's newsroom rants to Ben James' naps at the city desk.

All in all, it's been a heck of a ride.

Best wishes to everyone,

Jim
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In Googling Jim’s L.A. Times stories, I found this fascinating lede that should resonate with others who were in the BJ newsroom in the 1970s:

BY JAMES RICCI, Times Staff Writer March 27, 2002
On my very first day as a newspaperman, an editor whose breath stank of cheap cigars forever imprinted on me the profession’s devotion to factual accuracy.

I’d been assigned to write obituaries. One of those that I wrote that day stated, in accord with the death notice from the funeral home, that the deceased had lived at such-and-such address in such-and-such town. “You sure that address is in the city limits?,” the editor snarled. He jerked his thumb toward a snack of local street directories.

To make a long story short, although the departed himself probably claimed to be from the town, he went to his Maker a resident of the outlying township, at least on our obit page--and we got it right.

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The late BJ State Desk Editor Patrick T. Englehart was legendary in the 1970s newsroom for his dark-fired De Nobili cigars (about the size of the pencils you use to keep score at local golf courses), his passion for accuracy and his memos to reporters which read only: “See me.”

Pat and wife Marge moved from their beloved Mogadore to near Ocala, Florida, mainly for health reasons, where Pat died in 1995. Marge later moved to the Elks National Home in Bedford, Virginia. The Englehart children: Peter (former ABC Sports producer, now a marathon runner), Mary Pat (married to an architect), Andrew (lawyer and civil engineer) and Phillip (in Kansas City, Missouri with a doctorate).

The Ricci family is loaded with talent, too.

Jim’s daughter, Anne Ricci, is General Manager Diva of Opera on Tap in New York City, a non-profit organization that brings opera to ordinary residents put off by tuxedo-clad audiences at the Metropolitan Opera. Anne is a lyric soprano with a masters from Manhattan School of Music. She has performed with New York-based outreach company, The Remarkable Theatre Brigade, at the Chicago Humanities Festival, the International Fringe Festival and for American Opera Projects. She is an actress and member of Actors' Equity and teaches voice. I also Googled an October marriage in the works for Anne.

Jim’s other daughter, Laura, is an artist out of Los Angeles. She received her Master in Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2002 and her bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from Kalamazoo (Michigan) College in 1995.

Laura’s paintings often depict post-apocalyptic landscapes. Her work has been exhibited in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Oakland, San Antonio and Detroit.

As for Ahmad Rahman, the prisoner that Jim helped free, he is an assistant professor of history at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He was the first prisoner admitted into a graduate program at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Rahman is the author of “The Regime Change Of Kwame Nkrumah,” who led Ghana’s successful struggle for independence. Nkrumah was hailed as "Osagyefo" -- which means "redeemer" in the Twi language and is the title of Jim’s TV movie about Rahman.

Rahman is working on "The History of the Black Panther Party in Detroit." Rahman was a visiting assistant professor of Africana studies at the University of Toledo in 2004. He also works for prison reform.

For photos of Jim, alone and with daughter Ceci, 8, and others of Anne and Laura, and a sample of Laura’s art, click on the headline.