Allie Ritzenberg, D.C. tennis pro

For more than eight decades,

Allie Ritzenberg was a fixture of Washington’s tennis world, popularizing the sport and making it chic as an instructor to Jackie Kennedy, George H.W. Bush and other members of the city’s elite.

He coached students at Washington’s St. Albans School for Boys and made tennis a force from the suburbs to the inner city and on State Department tours to Haiti, Libya and other lands.

Mr. Ritzenberg was 100 when he died Nov. 22, at his Bethesda, home, of respiratory failure.

In 1961, he began going to the White House to give lessons Jacqueline Kennedy. Mostly, he held court at the St. Albans Tennis Club, which he established in 1962 at the private boys’ school on the grounds of Washington National Cathedral.

He insisted that players at his club wear tennis whites and that, while they were on his court, they leave their titles at the door.

The “George” who summoned Ritzenberg to South Dakota to play tennis in the middle of a presidential campaign was U.S. Sen. George McGovern. The “Bob” who showed up at 7 a.m. for Ritzenberg’s first lesson of the day was Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. “Kay,” who had a standing midday lesson, was former Washington Post publisher and chief executive Katharine Graham.

At one point, there was a 10-year waiting list to join his club.

Albert Ritzenberg was born Nov. 11, 1918, in Washington. His father ran a hardware store and later a salvage business. His mother, a homemaker, died in the 1930s.

Mr. Ritzenberg followed two older brothers, Hy and Nate, onto public tennis courts, and the three became known as outstanding players along the East Coast. After winning various local and regional tournaments, he went to the University of Maryland, became a teaching professional at the Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, then served in the Army Air Forces in the Pacific during World War II.

After the war, he received a master’s degree in sociology from George Washington University. He coached and established some of the Washington area’s first indoor courts. As a competitive senior player, he won more than a dozen international championships. He retired from competition as the No. 1-ranked 85-year-old player in the world.

His wife of 72 years, the former Madeleine “Peggy” Snowden, died in 2015. Survivors include four children; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.