Buck Riggs

(21 DEC 1933, 24 NOV 1993)

Buck Riggs Eulogies



**********************





D - 2

1st Row: Bundren, Chura, Coyle, Cummins, Erminger, Fetko (CO)
2nd Row: Fontaine, Herman, Heye, Jefferies, McCormack, McCulla
3rd Row: Russell, Meisenheimer, Michalove, Monahan, Quinn, Riggs
4th Row: Stern, Stockett, Thorsen, Werner
5th Row: Wilkinson, Woodruff x55)



**********************


Buck, MR. PAD AND POPCORN, fits your Kaydet days perfectly.

MR. EXCEL apply fits your post West Point days in the United States Air Force, Professor and Assistant Dean of Civil Engineering, Georgia Tech; designer of high rise office buildings; and the lead designer and construction superintendent for the Martin Luther King Memorial in Atlanta. Sylvanus Thayer would be disappointed that the system did not motivate you to such performance heights in your academy days.

I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to share time with you on my many business trips to Atlanta, Georgia. Fortunate, yes indeed fortunate. I was fortunate to be locked in a car with you on the way to the Masters Golf Tournaments. I had your undivided attention for three plus hours. THE MAN OF FEW WORDS actually shared what he was thinking about, thoughts and memories that I pried out of you. These conversations are treasures, filed away.

I continue to marvel at your outstanding achievements as a USAF fighter pilot. Outstanding stick and a superb combat tour in the A-1. Georgia Tech students held you in awe. The Dean held you in awe. Those Graduate School applicants had no clue as to the agony that Doctor Riggs experienced in the culling process to take only the most deserving individuals. You filled the bill perfectly as the Assistant Dean of the Civil Engineering School.

I never play a round of golf that I do not think about what the Base Champion (plural) said to do and not to do.

Thanks for sharing the time we spent together: Kaydet, Air Force and Academician.. You still make me feel extraordinary.

Jimmy Heye
December 22, 2000)


**********************


Folk, About this time of year, as long as I can remember having classmates, a Christmas thought has come to me. It is one I have never told anyone about, even the Lovely Val or any of my best friends. It concerns Buck Riggs. Leland Stanford Riggs, Jr., a onetime roommate from Pulaski, Va which we called Pulsacki just to bug him. You see, Buck was a magnificent person. If ever you wanted to start pickin' and choosin' among who amongst us has represented what we wanted our class to be, Buck would be a finalist every time. His accomplishments were manifest. Think of what he did in his short life, in the Service, as a designer/builder, as a most respected and beloved educator, as a scratch golfer, and as a person filled with good will and delightful humor. It is about his humor that keeps bringing me back to Buck every Christmas. Buck was a great fan of Pogo, which was the most popular comic strip going when we were at school. Buck would always grab our paper first thing to see what Walt Kelly had come up with now and would generally read it aloud to us because he couldn't wait for us to hear. And it was always something about Pepe lePeu, or Houndog with his soft brown eyes or about the lurking buzzard, Sarcophagus Macabre. Or his very favorites, the three wiseass mice in the corner. Their names were Bewitched, Bothered, and Bemildred. But what Buck did every year was to begin singing his favorite Christmas carol, obviously also from Pogo. So every year I mentally sing it with him even if now it does bring water to the eye. Maybe this year, some of you would like to help me:

"Deck us all with Boston Charlie
Walla Walla Wash and Kalamazooa,
Nora's freezing on the trolley
Swaller, dollar, cauliflower, Aligaroo"

Goodnight, sweet friend, Merrie Crispness.

Bundy
January 7, 2002)


**********************


"Buck", George Monahan, and I roomed together in a rented home while undergoing Combat Crew Training at Perrin AFB,TX in 1957). Quiet and reserved, he was the perfect complement to his wilder roommates. But if ever I were to choose a person to trust in combat or in life's challenges, Buck would be at the top of my list. He had a steadying influence on any situation. It came as no surprise that he garnered his doctorate and fame in the Atlanta construction business. A great talent taken away from us too soon. A great credit to his family; to West Point; to our Air Force,--- and to our country.

Be thou at peace old buddy.

Phil Bouchard
January 15, 2004)



**********************


West Point 1955 Home Page

1955 Personal Web Pages