“How fast do you type?”
The question was a defining moment in the life of Judy Ridgeway, ’70. After graduating from Northwestern, Ridgeway attended law school at the University of Oklahoma. At her first interview for an attorney position, the gentleman asked Ridgeway about her typing skills.
“This was a different time,” offered Ridgeway, “but I knew I wanted more from my education than to sit and type. I stood up and left the interview.”
That interview was her first and last. Ridgeway started her own law practice in Norman, Okla., in 1975. At that time, she was one of a handful of women lawyers in the entire state. She built a successful 36-year career as an attorney and business owner.
Ridgeway is a woman of unrelenting determination.
Living on the Edge
Ridgeway was born in Pulaski County, Mo. Her father, a boisterous bar owner, died before she was two years old. Her mother struggled to take care of Judy as a young widow coping with her own grief.
In 1958 when Ridgeway was eight years old, her mother, Marjorie, a chemist, met and married Vernon Nieberlein, a chemical engineer. The family moved to Huntsville, Ala., in 1960, where Vernon worked in rocket development for the space program at Redstone Arsenal. The Nieberlein family grew over the years with three sons.
Ridgeway was given the best opportunities for personal growth and achievement, including lessons in flute, piano, voice and gymnastics. She played the organ at church on Sunday mornings and was the drum majorette in the marching band. She was exceptionally smart: she skipped two grades and graduated high school early.
And she was adventurous, with a desire to live life to the fullest.
“I lived life on the edge all of the time,” Ridgeway said. “After I was caught shoplifting in high school, my parents sent me to an all-girls Catholic school with the hope that a military-type regimen would help.”
Headstrong, Ridgeway immersed herself into the “hippie” counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. It was a time when youth rejected traditional social norms and voiced their disapproval of racial and political injustices.
Ridgeway’s mother introduced her to the civil rights movement. Marjorie Huguley Nieberlein was the first white woman to become a lifetime member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Alabama. Ridgeway remembers marching for civil rights alongside her mother in Selma, Ala., at the age of 14 and being tear-gassed during the protest. Her mother’s efforts to remove racial barriers became a formative and lifelong lesson for Ridgeway.
Judy’s lifestyle choices – independent thinking, indulgence in counterculture activities, and living life as (in her words) “an all-American hippie” –
left her at odds with her conservative parents.
Enter Aurice Huguley
Ridgeway believes her drive to get things done comes from the indelible influence of her matriarchal family. In addition to her mother, Ridgeway has always been inspired by her maternal aunt, Aurice Huguley, ’40. Huguley worked at Northwestern Oklahoma State University for 43 years, advancing her career to Registrar and, finally, Business Manager before retiring. Huguley graduated with a degree in home economics and was unstoppable in her professional and philanthropic endeavors, serving on local and statewide boards and committees. Quietly, she funded the education of many students in their attainment of college degrees.
Ridgeway, who had spent her childhood summers with her Aunt Aurice in Alva, earned her undergraduate degrees in psychology and sociology at 19 years old. She acted onstage in Northwestern’s performances and sang in the Campus Singers choral group. And she witnessed the same drive to get things done in her aunt as she did in her mother.
“My aunt should have killed me a dozen times,” Ridgeway said with a laugh. “But she had my back. I saw in her great accomplishment by finding ways to get things done. She never gave up. She was all in.”
Ridgeway has always shown the same drive and determination, according to a long-time acquaintance.
“From the first time I met Judy, she has been straight-ahead and incredibly enthusiastic about everything she’s involved in,” said Ben Buckland, ’68, managing partner of Buckland Media Group in Oklahoma City.
After graduation, Ridgeway hitchhiked across America with other Northwestern graduates and put her degree to work as a social worker for a year in New York City. Her desire to make a bigger impact on the lives of people brought her back to Oklahoma, where she enrolled in the University of Oklahoma College of Law.
Full Throttle
When she started as an attorney, Ridgeway practiced criminal law and personal injury – all while fully participating in mood-altering chemicals. On April 10, 1980, Ridgeway accepted she had a problem with drugs and alcohol, joined a self-help group, and has remained sober ever since. She continues to be active in helping others who are seeking and working through recovery.
After becoming sober, Ridgeway began to specialize in representing fathers in custody cases.
“I served the underdog – the fathers, alcoholics, drug-addicted mothers. I was able to share my personal experience and provide them hope for a different way of living.”
In the mid-80s, she hired Michael Ridgeway to investigate a non-fatal hit-and-run automobile accident that Ridgeway caused when she was drinking; she needed the investigation in order to make amends. Michael was impressed by her vulnerability and candor, and she was taken with Michael’s intelligence and “dimples.” A perfect match, Ridgeway and Michael married in 1988.
Michael, also an OU College of Law graduate, has worked for the State of Oklahoma and is often sought for expert testimony and consulting. In 2011, he was recruited as General Counsel for the Dubai Financial Services Authority in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Ridgeway followed her husband to Dubai in the summer of 2011, closed her law practice in Norman, and admits to spending anxious social moments introducing herself as a “housewife.”
Not one to sit back, Ridgeway taught conversational English to Arabs during the five years the couple lived in Dubai.
Now back in Oklahoma, Ridgeway and Michael live on a well-manicured, 50-acre estate in rural Norman with a dog, horses, cats, ducks and geese. They enjoy a blended family of five children and six grandchildren. Ridgeway continues to work on projects involving social consciousness and making the world a better place. She started a successful rural area trash drive in Cleveland County that has removed hundreds of pounds of waste and more than 17,000 discarded tires. The program continues today.
Benefitting from the influence of Dr. Anna B. Fisher, professor of biology, and her love of plants and nature, Ridgeway has a greenhouse and tends to a multitude of plants. She raises ducklings that will eventually share her pond with fish and geese. She and Michael also love attending Shakespeare plays. Ridgeway says she was inspired by Julia K.Sparger, an English instructor at Northwestern, who brought the works of Shakespeare to life in class.
Based on her own recovery from alcoholism, drug addiction and overeating, Ridgeway speaks and conducts workshops regarding recovery, both in person and on Zoom.
No Secrets
Ridgeway is unabashedly open about her life and is a deeply spiritual woman.
“Secrets make us sick. The action of God in our lives is inevitable. The struggle is how long we wait to experience the presence of our Maker.
“The past is a useful tool. Without it, I wouldn’t believe as intensely in what I believe today."
What is her advice to college students?
“Be all in, with both feet. Care passionately about something, and be productive.”
Judy Ridgeway walks the walk through action, determination, and drive. She stands ready for the next challenge and opportunity – be it a new project, an individual who needs a hand up, or a cause that needs attention. Judy takes on life with passion and vigor, and remains determined not to let patriarchal stereotypes or bureaucratic inefficiency get in her way.
If a mountain needs moving, Ridgeway will do it.