Veteran ABC7 Anchor Bill Ritter Announces Retirement After Early-Stage Alzheimer’s Diagnosis

Bill Ritter, the longtime ABC7 New York news anchor, announced on Friday’s Eyewitness News broadcast that he has been diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and will step back from the evening newscast. The 76-year-old said this night’s program would likely be his last as an anchor unless a breakthrough treatment appears soon.

Ritter told viewers he had already moved from the 11 p.m. broadcast to the 5 p.m. and then 6 p.m. shows so he could spend more time with his family, and said that priority now matters even more because “my life has taken a turn.” He said doctors, after a series of tests, confirmed the diagnosis and that current treatments are slowing the disease for now, but there is still no cure. “It’s not easy for me to say all this to you, our viewers, and the people I work with,” he said.

He also spoke emotionally about his family, saying his children call him brave, but that “they’re the brave ones, and so is my wife, Kathleen.” Ritter said he will not disappear from the station entirely. He will keep working at ABC7, helping younger journalists at Eyewitness News and continuing as a reporter, though he will no longer anchor the 6 p.m. newscast.

Ritter said ABC7 wants to dig deeper into the rise of Alzheimer’s and similar diseases, including how they affect patients and families, the growing unaffordability of care, and how the country might begin to change that. He noted that his father died of the disease in June 1998 and said he has long been active in the fight against Alzheimer’s, alongside Mike Marza, who replaced him in the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. broadcasts last year. Ritter began his career at KTTV, KCAL and KNSD, joined ABC in 1993 on Good Morning America Sunday, and later moved through the 11 p.m., 6 p.m. and 5 p.m. Eyewitness News editions.