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Clinton CountyHistorical Society Inc.&
Historical Museum |
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John R.Riggs Is the son of Samuel H. Riggs (1913-2002) and Lucille Ruff Riggs(1918-200) and the brother of C.A. Riggs, Oregon. John was born February 27,1945 in Beech Grove, Indiana and in 1949 he and his family moved to Mulberry, Indiana, where they owned and operated Riggs Dairy Bar for a number of years. John attended Mulberry Schools (1951-1961) and graduated from Clinton Prairie High School in 1963. He credits his teachers at Mulberry and Clinton Prairie for their direction and inspiration for grounding him in the fundamentals of thought and action so necessary for meeting the challenges of life. John then entered Indiana University , Bloomington, where he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and rode in the Little500. While there he earned a BS in social studies and an MA in creative writing. He later attended the University of Michigan, studying conservations and environmental communication. On September 2, 1967 , John married Cynthia Perkins (1945-2002) and their children Heidi Zimmerman, Mansfield, Ohio and Shawn Riggs, Saint Paul, Minnesota . On July 1,1988 John married Carole Gossett Anderson and their children are Flint Anderson, Coatesville, and Susan Anderson, Indianapolis, Since 1971, John has lived in Putnam County, Indiana, currently on a small farm southeast of Greencastle. Throughout those years he has worked as a teacher, football coach , quality control foreman, carpenter, and wood-splitter. From 1979-1997 he assisted James R. Gammon of DePauw University with Gammon's landmark research on the Wabash River. Presently, as he has done for the past twenty years John works as a researcher for the DePauw University Archives. John is author of 13 books in the Garth Ryland mystery series, several published articles, and the Bicentennial History bulletins for the Indiana United Methodist Church. His works in progress include a Garth Ryland mystery and Me ,Darst, and Alley Oop Walking the Dog, both memoirs. River Rats, a coming of age novel, set along the Wabash River in the 1950's John remembers the people and places of Mulberry with great affection, which is why he has used it as the setting for Garth Ryland's fictional home of Oakalla, Wisconsin, He loves to write, and plans to write as long as he can continue to put pen to paper.
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