Early in the courtship of Rick Rietveld and his future wife, Kristine, she spotted him at a party and — in trying to take a seat next to him — managed to spill an entire glass of white wine down the front of her dress. Rietveld grabbed a napkin, dabbed gingerly at the wet fabric, then took her hand. “Let’s go for a walk,” he said. “It’ll dry.”
“That’s the kind of sensitive guy he was,” Kristine Rietveld said. “He always made me feel comfortable, and he just had a sparkle the average person doesn’t.”
Rietveld — born Richard Delbert Rietveld and best known for his 25-year-tenure at Valencia College’s theater arts and film programs — died Oct. 30 of complications from a 2011 stem-cell transplant. The surgery had been his last best chance to overcome myelodysplasia, or MDS, a bone-marrow disorder. He was 69.
Colleagues call him “visionary” for launching the nation’s first associate in science degree for theater arts and helping to establish what Steven Spielberg has called one of the best film schools in the country at Valencia. But Rietveld had many roles there: professor, director of the Performing Arts Center, technical director, set designer and dean in the humanities department.
“He was an amazing person in so, so many ways,” said Julia Gagne, retired artistic director for Valencia’s theater program. “I actually started at Valencia the same year as Rick — in 1982 — and we immediately became friends. He had a great, mischievous sense of humor and incredible memory. He would tell the best stories. If you were at some boring meeting and Rick showed up, you’d think, ‘Well, now things are going to get interesting.'”
Born in South Holland, Ill., a small farming community, Rietveld started acting in high school, and he fell in love with theater, travel and adventure. He went on to study acting and earn a master’s degree in speech and performance theater.
During his early career, he became a TV station producer, general manager of the Milwaukee Opera Company, theater director for the school of Fine Arts in Birmingham, Ala., and general manager and director of the Birmingham Children’s Theatre.
He met Kristine while attending Florida State University, working on a doctorate. She was a nurse. “The yin-yang of the relationship was the glue,” she said. “We were on a perpetual honeymoon.”
Rietveld was 47 when he and Kristine adopted daughter Harley, then 13. When the adoption was finalized, Rietveld sent out a giant “birth” notice with a size-6 footprint.
“I feel like I was chosen,” said Harley Anthony, now 35. “He gave me the world. He was my father, my mentor, my rock.”
Even after he was diagnosed with MDS and retired to Jasper, Ala., he didn’t slow down. He still helped out the children’s theater he started years earlier, he kayaked, fished and water-skied, and he taught everyone else in the extended family to ski, too.
“Rick was always a teacher,” Kristine said. “It wasn’t good enough to know you. He wanted to pull you along.”
In addition to his wife and daughter, Rietveld is survived by siblings Carol Barnes, Sue Ebbons, Tim Rietveld and Bill Lee Rietveld and two grandchildren. At 7 p.m. Monday, a celebration of his life will be held at Valencia College East Campus Performing Art Center, 701 North Econlockhatchee Trail in Orlando.
