Apr. 30, 2014:  If there is one person in Bronxville who remembers when the real Memorial Day falls on the calendar, it's Robert Riggs (Bob). That's because the real Memorial Day, May 30, falls on his birthday, not the last Monday in May where it now stands.

"I've had a long history with the parade," Bob said, "because for many years I treated it as part of my birthday party." This year, however, he will celebrate his birthday a few days early on Monday, May 26, when he leads the annual Bronxville Memorial Day parade as its grand marshal.

Almost a village native, Bob was born in White Plains in 1933 and moved with his family to Bronxville in 1937. "I grew up in this town," he said. "I can remember the parade early on, in the 1940s and during the Second World War. I marched in it as a Cub Scout when I was ten or eleven years old, in 1943 or 1944."

Riggs expressed surprise and gratitude at being tapped as this year's grand marshal. "I think the Memorial Day parade has brought more villagers together than any other event in town," he said.

Known in Bronxville for his service to the community as legal counsel to the board of trustees from 1977 to 1980 and as a trustee from 1988 to 1993, Riggs also co-founded The Bronxville Historical Conservancy in 1997. He holds a lifetime trustee position with the conservancy.

Riggs is also respected for his work in the larger community. At Sarah Lawrence College he was a trustee from 1994 to 2008 and, from 2004 to 2008, was chairman of its board. Since 2012, Bob has volunteered as co-chair for Eastchester 350th Anniversary, Inc.

Perhaps not so well known is that Riggs served for three years as a pilot for the Strategic Air Command in the United States Air Force and earned the rank of captain. He entered Amherst College in 1951, during the Korean War, and joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps so he could remain in college and graduate.

Riggs began his three-year tour of duty with the Air Force in 1955 in San Antonio, Texas. He had pilot training in the small west Texas town of Hondo and had multi-engine training in Enid, Oklahoma. He went to special school in Wichita, Kansas, where he learned to pilot the B-47 bomber, a central component of Cold War bombing strategy.

He had survival training at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada, where military personnel were taught how to be "a good prisoner, how not to disclose secrets, and keep our mouths shut," he recollected.

During his permanent station in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at Pease Air Force Base with the Strategic Air Command, Riggs also served overseas tours at Brize Norton Royal Air Force base in Great Britain and Torrejón Air Base near Madrid, Spain.

"The B-47 I flew during the Cold War was basically designed to carry an atomic bomb," Riggs explained. "The problem was, it could reach Russia but it didn't have the fuel supply to come back. It became obsolete about the time I left the Air Force in 1958."

Upon leaving military service, Riggs entered Columbia University School of Law, where he graduated with an LLB degree in 1961. He worked as an associate and advanced to partner at Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP and today holds the distinction of retired partner. Although he was a member of the United States Air Force Reserve until 1968, he was never called back to active duty.

"I'm not a decorated veteran," Riggs said. "I don't have any pins and ribbons, but I think Memorial Day merits recall of the people who died in war because they all made a great sacrifice."

In noting the level of service Bob Riggs has given and continues to give to the community, Mayor Mary Marvin stated, "Bob gives the same level of passion and commitment to his beloved hometown as he did to our country. What an example for all of us."

Pictured here:  Robert Riggs, grand marshal of the 2014 Memorial Day parade in Bronxville.

Photo by A. Warner