Birth date: May 24, 1940 Death date: Aug 22, 2023
Melvin (Bud) Evans Riggs II, 83, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, passed away peacefully on August 22, 2023. He was born May 24, 1940, in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Melvin and Juanita Riggs. He taught for Tulsa Public Schools for 34 years and was a lo Read Obituary
Bud was well loved in Maine as was Pam. They both brought the warmth of their love for Christ with them each summer they came to York Beach. Our worship and fellowship together was what Christ designed the church to be. It was always a joy to go to the Goldenrod and have some ice cream together. Every time three scoops of chocolate for Bud.
Phil and Sue Burns
Sharing some memories.
Melvin and I became acquainted during a swim meet at the Oklahoma City YMCA in 1951. It certainly didn’t occur to me at the time that we would become closer and closer friends over a period of 72 years. We were on competing teams through high school, and finally teamed up for our four years at Oklahoma University where we lived in the same dorm, ate at the same dining hall, and trained in the same pools, and where we roomed together in our final semester. College swim team friendships can be long lasting.
One of my favorite memories of ‘Bud’ is from a summer when we were both attending Coach Matt Mann’s Camp Chikopi near the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, about 100 miles north of Toronto. The two of us got in the afternoon habit of doing an out-and-back run on the dirt road from the Camp to the main road (Highway 124). On the way out we always made small talk, but on the way back it always became a race.
After college we went in different directions, but as our families and careers finally settled down, we somehow got back in touch, and for a good twenty years we routinely had long and enjoyable phone conversations. In 2008 I returned to Oklahoma City with my wife, Nancy, for a high school reunion, and got to have mini reunion of OU swimmers in Norman: Melvin (with Pam), Phil Brougher (with Judy), me (with Nancy), and Bob Conners. We strolled the campus checking out Jeff House, the dining hall, and the library. We were sad that the pools where we trained and the sport that we represented were no longer a part of the OU experience. But the friendships were still intact.
Will miss you, Bud…
John Day
