Joe Riggs’ sons can still remember being driven past a small house on Capitol Hill, where their dad sat on the front porch, guarding President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Riggs, who was 91 when he died March 23, was a Denver policeman for 25 years. Sometimes, it was his duty to help guard the Eisenhowers when they visited Mamie Eisenhower’s mother, Elivera Doud, who lived at 750 Lafayette St. But Joe Riggs didn’t wear a uniform. He wore a dark suit and brimmed hat, “like Humphrey Bogart wore,” said his son Vincent Riggs of Tucson.
Riggs often had the Larimer Street beat — “and it was a rough area in those days,” Vincent Riggs said.
Joe Riggs shielded his kids from some of the things he had to deal with, his sons said, but they do recall his story of jumping off a roof while chasing a suspect. He landed in a snowbank, but he and the other officers caught the guy.
Joe Riggs was about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed only 147 pounds “but he was a tough guy,” said his son Byron Riggs of Arvada.
Riggs made an effort to help teenagers who got in trouble, sitting down with them or their parents to talk and sometimes even bringing a teenager home for dinner, Byron Riggs said. “He wanted them to see what a regular family was like. He always hoped he could turn them around.”
In most of his off-duty hours, Joe Riggs was entertaining people on his accordion or teaching accordion students. He began playing the instrument as a teenager and had a polka band in high school, the Rockets. The band auditioned for a national TV talent program; it came in second — after a talking chicken, a fact Riggs always laughed about.
He played his accordion for a variety of civic groups, weddings, retirement homes and orphanages and was still playing last year.
Joseph Salvatore Riggs was born in Albany, N.Y., on Nov. 29, 1917. He graduated from North High School and two years later met Elizabeth Lukas at Lakeside Amusement Park. They married on Nov. 29, 1940, his birthday.
Riggs was in the Army in World War II and trained soldiers in bayonet fighting, small arms, hand grenades, mortars, cannons and tank destroyers.
He joined the Denver Police Department in 1946 and stayed for 25 years. He did security and public relations at St. Anthony North Hospital in Westminster for 14 years.
Active in community affairs, he was given the Humanitarian of the Year Award by the Westminster Chamber of Commerce in 1982.
In addition to his sons, he is survived by his wife and two grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
