Charles Arthur Riggs

Charles Arthur Riggs was born in Valley, Nebraska on October 1st, 1925, to James Herbert Riggs and Mabel (Doherty) Riggs. As a young man of five siblings, he inherited the history of Nebraska on the shoulders of his grandfather James Herbert Riggs, who was a newspaper publisher and state senator 14 years after Nebraska became a state.

As a young man, Charlie attended Benson High School in Omaha, Nebraska before enlisting in the U.S. Navy, where his aircraft carrier the USS Anzio patrolled the South Pacific during World War Two. After his discharge from the Navy, he attended University of Denver and Gallaudet University. That is where his lifelong passion for American Sign Language began, which he used in his managerial skills with people.

He was married twice: first to Phyllis Dawson in Omaha (1947) and then to Shirley Early Riggs in Denver (1993). Charlie had two sons, Charles Arthur, Jr. and David Alan; four adult stepchildren, Nancy, Paul, Beth and TJ; and four grandchildren, Audrey, Theo, Nick, and Alex. From the publication era of the family, he was interested in newspapers and television, while being politically active at various periods. The career that formed the basis of his lifelong employment in the communication world was the United States Postal Service. Beginning his career in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1958, he rose in the ranks to become postmaster in Charleston, Virginia, Master Instructor of the Postal Academy in Potomac, Maryland, and auditor in the Denver, Colorado region up to retirement.

Charlie liked humor and adventures, enjoying sailing and aviation as a licensed pilot, humorous speech, public speaking, and dinner salons, habitually purchasing books on politics, history, or humor. His assortment of friends ranged from a Wyoming rancher, a Denver lawyer, a North Carolina minister, a South Dakota mayor, and a Colorado auto performance show owner.

Personality-wise, he was kind and a gentleman, who could be intrusive if he chose to do so. One of his proudest moments was being honored as the single World War II veteran at a Denver Nuggets basketball playoff game, standing on the court with a cheerleader on each arm. At the culmination of his career, Charlie opened his own accounting business in an eighth-floor office suite above a Wells Fargo Bank in Denver, which he named DBA-Charles A. Riggs. Charlie operated the business until he was age 95. At age 98, Charlie and his wife, Shirley, moved to Washington State, where they had previously lived earlier in life. Upon arriving at his goal of reaching 100 years of age, he was honored as a veteran, husband, father, grandfather, and friend. On October 23rd, he breathed his last breath of life on this earth before heaven.

A military memorial at Tahoma National Cemetery is to be held on November 21st at 1:00 PM.

All is Well

Death is nothing at all,

I have only slipped into the next room

I am I and you are you

Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

Call me by my old familiar name,

Speak to me in the easy way which you always used

Put no difference in your tone,

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was,

Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.

It is the same as it ever was, there is unbroken continuity.

Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near,

Just around the corner.

All is well.

-Oxford professor, Henry Scott Holland