Richard E. Venus: Grand Storyteller
Every era has its grand storyteller, and for the last third of the 20th Century, Ridgefield's has surely been Richard E. Venus, historian, postmaster, town official, dairyman, and raconteur extraordinaire. He has come to epitomize the way Ridgefield was during most of its nearly 300 years -- a small town of kind and gentle people who participated in all aspects of their community, who enjoyed their fellow townspeople, and who loved a good story and knew how to tell it.
Born in 1915 on northern Main Street, he grew up listening to the many stories of adults, tales told in an era before radio or TV and tales he never forgot. He became a master storyteller, enchanting countless people with his recollections of the days when Ridgefield was dotted with the summer estates of wealthy New Yorkers and of the many fascinating people who worked as their servants, gardeners, and chauffeurs. Many of those anecdotes are recorded in his monumental series, Dick's Dispatch, 366 columns published in The Press between March 1982 and November 1988 (collected, bound and indexed at the Ridgefield Library). As a boy, he had a large newspaper route that included The Press.
In 1928, only 13, he went to work on Conklin's Dairy Farm before and after school, and later worked fulltime. "I always loved horses and drove a team, plowing fields and mowing hay," he recalled. When tractors took over from horses, he transferred to the retail part of the milk business. Later, he became superintendent for many years at Dr. Royal C. Van Etten's 87-acre Hillscroft Farm on St. John's Road. In the 1950s, he operated Dic-Rie Dairy (named for Dick and his wife, Marie), delivering milk to many households. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy named him postmaster of Ridgefield, a job he held for 21 years, longer than any person before or since.
A lifelong Democrat, Mr. Venus served three terms as a selectman and ran twice unsuccessfully for first selectman against the popular -- and Republican -- Leo F. Carroll (q.v.). He's served on the Historic District Commission, the Zoning Board of Appeals, and has been a leader in or member of a dozen community organizations, including Kiwanis, Boys Club, and Knights of Columbus. Since the mid-1980s, Mr. Venus has been Ridgefield's town historian, so appointed by the governor, and has been active in the Ridgefield Archives Committee.
And if that wasn't enough, he played in the Ridgefield Boys Band in the 1920s and was drummer for his own Mayflower Swing Band, organized in 1934, which played throughout the area for many years. Dick Venus saw the town change a lot from his childhood, but he has never stopped loving it and its people. "It's grown too fast," he said in 2000. "We weren't prepared for it ... There are a lot of nice people who have moved into Ridgefield, and there are others -- it'll take them a little time to get acclimated. My mother always taught me to tip my hat and smile at people. With some, if you do that, they'll glare at you like you're crazy, but they'll get along. They'll get the swing of things before they're through. Most everybody who comes through Ridgefield stays, if they can. Ridgefield is a great town."
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