News Archive
Who is Ruth Reichard?
08/13/2021
Dr. Ruth Reichard, ’85, is a lawyer, historian, author, and, in addition to those distinguished credentials, a recent Jeopardy! contestant.
Up against a competitor who has been on a weeks-long hot streak, Reichard (in the photo at left) was one question away from winning but ultimately placed third on the episode that aired on Thursday, August 13.
The episode was taped on May 4 in Los Angeles, following more than a year-long audition process that Reichard began on a whim at her kitchen table in January 2020 when she took an online test to qualify. Qualifying for Jeopardy! soon receded in her mind as her focus on work, family and the COVID-19 pandemic continued.
Producers of the Emmy-winning game show contacted her again in October 2020 to take another test, then again in November for a Jeopardy! simulation with other contestant hopefuls via Zoom.
Earlier this year, Reichard was finally invited to be a contestant. She got the call on the same day that that she received page proofs for her recent book, “Blood and Steel: Ryan White, the AIDS Crisis and the Deindustrialization of Kokomo, Indiana,” an urban and social history that examines how two historical developments, the emergence of the AIDS pandemic and the ongoing deindustrialization of the Midwest, divided a community.
As she waited with other contestants to start the taping of her episode in May, Reichard had psyched herself up to enjoy her Jeopardy! experience. By the end of the first commercial break, Reichard was feeling comfortable timing the buzzer with the questions.
But, alas, one question ended her quest. “It was always something I thought would be fun to do but playing is very different from doing it at your kitchen table or in your living room,” Reichard says.
Reichard (with Jeopardy! guest host Joe Buck in the photo at right) is an education attorney for the Indiana Office of Court Services. In addition to being an alumna of IU McKinney, she received her Master of Arts in U.S. History from the IU School of Liberal Arts in 2008 and completed her doctorate in U.S. History at Indiana University in 2015. She has nearly 30 years of combined litigation, judicial and teaching experience.
