This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/HSDBAIB/1431 Message Board Post: RIGGS, LEROY Born in Riverside, California, on February 25, 1927; died of heart failure in San Diego on March 21, 2004. He joined the Navy in 1944, and after completing training at St. Mary ' s Preflight School, he was discharged from active duty. Beginning in 1949, he was a physicist at the Naval Weapons Center in China Lake, California, and an officer in the Naval Reserves. In the late 1950s he spent one year in Washington D.C. where he was the first civilian technical director of the Navy ' s Bureau of Ordnance Astronautics Office. Returning to China Lake, he served as a program manager of antiradiation missile development for both the Navy and the Air Force, including the Shrike Antiradiation Missile. He also served in various management positions, including head of the Missile Systems Department, Electronic Systems Department, Deputy Technical Director, and Technical Director. During the Vietnam War he spent time under combat conditions, planning missions and training p! ilots on the Midway, Ranger, Enterprise, Constellation, and Hancock. During his years of service he received a number of awards, including the L.T.E. Thompson Award in 1972, and the Navy ' s highest award that can be bestowed on a civilian, the Distinguished Service Award, in 1974. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Marilyn (Ditty) Riggs, of San Diego; daughters and sons-in-law Fran and Bill Fenical of Solana Beach, and Cindy and Dick Craig of Bend, Oregon; grandchildren Scott Fenical, Rebekah Gutman and husband Rick Gutman, Rachel Young, and Christopher Young; and sister-in-law Patricia Riggs. He was preceded in death by his brother Louis Riggs. Inurnment and a private family memorial service will be held at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to the China Lake Museum Foundation, of which he was a founding member. (P.O. Box 217, Ridgecrest, CA 93556) Please sign the guest book at obituaries.uniontrib.com Published in the San Diego Union-Tribune on 3/26/2004. (volunteer submission)