The Dr. David Monroe Ritchie Memorial Fund was established in 2001 in the memory of Dr. David Monroe Ritchie after he passed away after a tragic car accident. This fund is to support students pursuing degrees in nursing, or certification in paramedic, EMT or EMTI in Jackson and Kanawha Counties in West Virginia.

Dr. Ritchie was a graduate of Ravenswood High School, West Virginia University School of Medicine in Animal Husbandry and the WVU School of Medicine. He began his medical practice in Big Chimney, then moved to South Charleston before coming to Charleston. He was an emergency room physician at Jackson General Hospital in Ripley and St. Joseph's Hospital in Parkersburg.

He was a member of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in South Charleston, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the West Virginia State Medical Association, the Kanawha Valley Medical Society, the West Virginia Board of Medicine, and First United Methodist Church in Ravenswood.

He was the Medical Director of Review for West Virginia Blue Cross/Blue Shield and served as "Doc for a Day" during the state Legislature for several years.