Nelda Earl Ricker passed away on Thursday, August 1st, 2024, at Ogeechee Area Hospice in Statesboro, Ga. Nelda was born in the coastal town of Ventura, California, but grew up in Las Vegas, when it was still a small city.
The most influential person in Nelda’s life while growing up was her beloved grandmother, Mrs. Daisy Jones of Vancouver, Wash.
Graduating from high school with honors, she moved to Provo, Utah, to attend Brigham Young University, where she met her husband, Curtis. They married in the LDS Temple in Manti, Utah. A fun first year of marriage was spent as managers of a trading post in Lybrook, N.M., adjacent to the Navajo reservation.
After her husband graduated from BYU, they moved near Richfield, Utah, where he taught for Sevier School District and Snow College. During the next six summers, they returned to Provo for additional education at BYU.
The family left Utah for the idyllic college town — with beautiful parks — of Normal-Bloomington, Ill., where Curtis worked on a doctoral degree at Illinois State University. The family later moved to Statesboro, where her husband began teaching at Georgia Southern, which was then a college of 6,000 students. Their first month in Georgia was spent using their pop-up camper in state parks while waiting for their home loan to close.
Nelda loved trips to the library with her boys and vacations spent camping as a family in the Great Smoky Mountains and state parks around Georgia and South Carolina and instilled her own passion for reading and learning in her children.
She graduated from Georgia Southern with a bachelor’s degree and some master’s level course work. Her favorite class was calculus.
In 2004, Nelda traveled with her husband to Germany when Clint completed his two-year service in the Hamburg, Germany, mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 2009, she and Curtis travelled to Germany, Denmark and Austria.
Nelda’s son, Curt, earned his bachelor’s at Georgia Southern University and a master’s at Kennesaw State, Chris earned a bachelor’s at Georgia Tech and a master’s at the University of Utah and Clint earned his bachelor’s at the University of Georgia. After much self-training, all three sons are employed in technology fields.
Nelda is survived by her husband, Dr. Curtis Ricker; and children, Curt Ricker of Statesboro and Cobb County, Ga.; Chris (Jennifer) of Columbus, Ga.; and Clint (Sarah) of Lavonia, Ga., and London, England. She has seven fantastic grandchildren, Grace, CJ, Libby, Gavin, Eleanor, Henry and Lucy.
Visitation will be held Saturday, August 10, 2024, at Joiner-Anderson Funeral Home in Statesboro from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m.
The graveside service and burial will be private.
Friends may sign the online register book at www.joineranderson.com.
Joiner-Anderson Funeral Home & Crematory of Statesboro is in charge of arrangements.
Statesboro Herald, August 8, 2024
Sign the Legacy online guestbook at www.statesboroherald.com.