The Geraldine Ann Ryberg Memorial Physical Education Scholarship

Born on October 3, 1925, Gerry Ryberg was a woman who never failed to dream big dreams, work to make those dreams a reality, and live them to the fullest. Gerry’s desire for adventure and the enrichment of the lives of others took her from Red Wing, Minnesota where she grew up, to central Minnesota; Boulder, Colorado; Salt Lake City, Utah; Chicago, Illinois; the ski slopes of Austria; and finally back to her beloved Ely, Minnesota and the North Woods. Gerry was an athlete (you name the sport, she played it, and played it well)…a teacher (whether in high school, college, or under the pines at Camp Northland in Ely)…a coach (college ski team, high school tennis, basketball, softball, and golf)…a licensed pilot (commercial, single engine land and sea)…a true and loyal friend, and a leader. Even up to her senior year in high school, Gerry did not think a college education was within her reach. In her words, “I used to lie awake at night dreaming of fairy castles. Dreams where I inherited enough money so that I could attend college…but I always returned to reality and the more immediate problems at hand. When I was asked to apply for a scholarship to Winona Teacher’s College, I stopped dreaming of fairy castles, and began dreaming of ideals, concrete plans for the future, and what I could do with and for others as a journalist or a teacher…”

Graduating from Central High School in Red Wing, Minnesota, Gerry was named the city’s most outstanding girl athlete. She won the Catherine Friedrich scholarship in 1943 and left Red Wing to pursue a college education. Four years (and several more scholarships) later, she graduated with honors from Winona State Teacher’s College with majors in physical education and English.

Gerry’s first teaching job was at Albert Lea High School in south central Minnesota. After two years at Albert Lea, one of her Winona professors recommended Gerry for a graduate assistantship at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In part the recommendation read: “…at Albert Lea, Gerry was liked and admired by students and staff alike…Gerry is a natural leader, a good student, and a thoroughly fine person…a member of Kappa Delta Pi, she was awarded, by vote of the entire faculty of our college, the best scholarship we had to give. The award was given on the basis of her outstanding worth, contributions to the college, and her need.” In 1950 Gerry began a teaching assistantship at the University of Colorado, Boulder (where, in two years, she earned a master’s degree). Her teaching career took her to the University of Utah, then to the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and in 1958 back to Colorado for a full-time teaching position at the University of Colorado at Boulder. After a voluntary leave to travel in Europe during the 1960-1961 school year, Gerry accepted an offer to teach at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois. For twenty years at New Trier, Gerry served as a Girls’ Physical Education teacher, a highly respected colleague, an adviser, the chair of the Girls’ Physical Education Department, girls’ basketball and tennis coach, and the school’s first ever Girls’ Sports Coordinator. Gerry was a pioneering leader in the era of girls’ sports and Title IX.

Scholarship contact is Nancye Nelson.