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May 18th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Don Ritchie was said to have salt water in his veins.
He loved fishing, he loved boats and he loved the navy.
But it was his love for life that earned him the epithet Angel of The Gap, according to friends and family who paid tribute to the Sydneysider at his funeral service on Friday.
About 300 people, including local MP Malcolm Turnbull, gathered at the HMAS Watson Naval Chapel in Watsons Bay to farewell Mr Ritchie, who died on Sunday.
The 85-year-old lived just metres from The Gap, the notorious Watsons Bay cliff, where for half a century he helped hundreds of people to reconsider ending their lives.
“He was a fisher of men,” said friend and priest the Reverend Father Tony Doherty.
“He threw his line out to terrified people whose lives were shattered and gradually brought them to shore.
“He caught hundreds of people with a honeyed net … and gave them a little time and attention at a time in their lives when things were just bleak.”
Born in Vaucluse in 1926, Mr Ritchie served in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) before working as a life insurance salesman.
From the time he moved into his house on Old South Head Road in 1964, the former seaman kept a voluntary watch on those entering The Gap from his bedroom window.
“He couldn’t see people without helping them,” his tearful daughter Sue told the service.
“His story has travelled far and wide … he’d be so surprised.”
Joe Gibian, from the Returned and Services League, told the memorial that Mr Ritchie’s life was dominated by his love of the ocean.
“He had salt water in his veins,” he said.
Mr Ritchie, whose casket was draped in a RAN flag and white flowers, was honoured with a rendition of the Last Post before being escorted by uniformed navy personnel.
Mr Ritchie was named Australia’s Local Hero in the 2011 Australian of the Year awards and was also the recipient of a Medal of the Order of Australia.
He is survived by his widow Moya, 85, and their three daughters Jan, Donna and Sue.
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