Richard Cromwell Riggs Jr. ’61

Dick died March 23, 2022, after a 24-year struggle with Parkinson’s disease.

A son of  ’30 and born in Baltimore, he came to us from Gilman School. At Princeton, he majored in economics, ate at Charter, and roomed with Jim Kellogg, John Torell, Bill Robertson, and Perry Thomas.

After earning an MBA at Harvard, Dick embarked on a business career that began in venture capital until 1973, when he acquired the struggling Barton Cotton firm and transformed it into a top direct-mail fundraising firm until he sold it in 2006. 

In 1995, when the Maryland Club, a mainstay in Baltimore, was heavily damaged in a fire, Dick, who was its president, engineered its restoration. He was a vestryman of the Emmanuel Episcopal Church and a board member of the Maryland Zoo, Ducks Unlimited, Waverly Press, and the Baltimore Economic Development Corp. A friend observed, “If you presented Dick with a business proposition, he could get to the essence of the issue quickly. He had a wonderful business mind and was a clear-thinking individual.”

He is survived by his wife of nearly 52 years, Sheila; daughter Charlotte; son George; their families; and two sisters.