Lloyd Stephen Riford Jr. ’46

 Steve was a New York State legislator who served 8 terms as an Assemblyman and Senator, representing five counties in Central New York. He died in Kihei, Maui, HI at 101 years old.

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He was a WWII veteran who served as an ambulance driver in the American Field Service from 1942-1945 in the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily and Italy, France and Germany. He was also a leap year baby, and had only 25 actual birthdays. On his 100th birthday in 2024, the New York State Senate passed this resolution: https://www.nysenate.gov/print/pdf/node/12030701.

Steve Riford attended a one-room school in Half Acre, New York from kindergarten to 8th grade. He was a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and Princeton University, with additional graduate work at Cornell University and Dartmouth College.

He was active in community and service organizations, and served on several boards of directors including as Chairman of the Cayuga County (NY) Planning Board. He also served as Vice Chairman of the Central NY Regional Planning Board (for Cayuga, Onondaga, Madison, and Cortland Counties), on the Seymour Library Board of Trustees (as Secretary/Treasurer of that Auburn, NY library), the Auburn, NY YMCA 

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Board of Directors, the Wells College (NY) Board of Trustees, and as Deacon of Keawala’i Congregational Church in Kihei, Maui. He received several awards and recognitions over his many years of constituent and community service.

Steve was married for 50 years to Susan Crawford Riford, who passed away in 1997.

He married Joan Chayka Riford in 1999. She passed away in 2021.

He is survived by his three children: Suzanne Riford Toman of Los Angeles (actor Suzanne Ford), Lloyd Stephen “Sandy” Riford of Oahu, and Thomas B. Riford of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Caption: Steve Riford volunteered as an American Field Service ambulance driver at the onset of WWII in 1942, when he turned 18. He helped save numerous lives during his four years of wartime service.