Jesse Bright Parker (“Riggs”) died peacefully just before sunrise on Tuesday, March 12, 2024: as ever, an early riser, off to distant shores.
After 50 years on Martha’s Vineyard, profoundly appreciating its most unique treasures and volunteering his talents to maintain and improve upon them, he had relocated to the rocky shores of Rhode Island, where he could revel in the same with less physical effort in his later years. He died at home after a very brief illness, tenderly cared for by a fortunate few of those who loved him.
Born on April 18th, 1933, in Washington, D.C., to Charlotte Symington (Riggs) and Edward Cortlandt Parker, Riggs began his civic work in short pants and an Eton collar, passing canapés at dinner parties where most guests were in uniform, military visitors brought to D.C. by the war abroad; rolling tinfoil from his mother’s cigarette packs into balls to be melted for reuse in the war; and knitting wool squares for the troops.
The White House was early on his dance card: a vivid memory is being joined by FDR in his wheelchair to giggle at Mickey Mouse movies with classmate Diana (Harry Hopkins’ daughter).
Riggs attended St. Albans School in D.C. and, after his mother remarried, the McDonough School, a military school in Maryland, before moving on to graduate from Hotchkiss, where he took to the theater — as actor, playwright, stage manager — and was voted “BestDressed” and “Most Gentlemanly” among his peers.
He proceeded to Princeton, and graduated in 1954 with a B.A. in English. Having married Barbara Gartner from Lawrenceville, N.J., in the fall of his senior year, upon graduation, they summarily drove to his next assignment: the U.S. Army (Artillery), Fort Sill, Okla., during the Korean conflict.
Although his first career choice was architecture, following his stepfather’s no-nonsense advice, he chose to take his GI Bill to the University of Virginia Law School (class of ’59). His analytic turn of mind served him well, and he made the Law Review at the end of his first year, becoming editor-in-chief at the end of his second year.
Next stop: Drinker Biddle & Reath in Philadelphia, where he specialized in corporate and securities law. His flair for securities led him to join Drexel & Co. as a member of the board and the executive committee, and head of administration.
Riggs married Emma Thune Keene in 1970; each had five children from their first marriages. In 1974 they left Philadelphia for Chilmark, with seven of their 11 children. The youngest began their formal education in Chilmark’s one-room schoolhouse, and all seven graduated from the Vineyard High School.
Once retired, Riggs’ increase in civic service came naturally, harking back to the Plymouth Colony’s Elder Brewster on his father’s side, and grandparents on his mother’s side descended from Thomas Jefferson the elder, and from Riggs’ namesake, Jesse Bright, U.S. Senator, 1845–62. Bright served alongside Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Calhoun, and Jefferson Davis, was voted their Senate president, and served briefly as acting U.S. president during the turbulent decade prior to the Civil War.
Riggs served on the first Chilmark planning board, writing the subdivision regulations which included “the 10 percent rule” — a provision which deterred large-scale development. He was involved in the development and adoption of the roadside and shoreside districts of planning concern. He was instrumental in the development of the original youth lot bylaw, and testified in its defense in court.
Craig Kingsbury taught him the art of building Chilmark-style stone walls. Lobsterman Donald Poole invited Riggs to drop into his weathered Menemsha shack to swap stories “anytime,” resulting in a 1980 winterlong photo shoot, a gallery show, and photo book, which joined Riggs’ earlier “Up-Island Winter,” and was followed by “Little Lady of Menemsha.” He delighted in his enduring friendships with up-Island giants Matt Poole the elder, David Flanders, and Everett Poole, with whom he spent countless afternoons at the Chandlery once neither were up to spending much time on the water.
As the children grew, Riggs and Emma had begun cruising from Menemsha to the Exumas — often with children aboard. Emma succumbed to colon cancer at the young age of 64.
After a near-fatal rupture of his appendix turned gangrenous, saved by miraculous surgical intervention, Riggs decided to “get on with life.” Cruising friends introduced him to Helen Schwiesow, a clinical psychologist practicing in Charlottesville, Va. It was love at first sight; they were committed to a Vineyard life together before she had ever set foot there. She describes her choice to give up her career as a simple one: Riggs was a full-time job.
Then there was the civic work they began as a team, most often with Riggs at the forefront:
In 2000 Riggs was asked to become the Island’s member on the Steamship Authority, filling out the term of his predecessor. It was a time of turmoil for the Steamship, as Falmouth sought to reduce traffic to Woods Hole. Riggs and then-manager Armand Tiberio supported freight traffic as well as high-speed passenger service through New Bedford, and spent many nights off-Island following Kass Commission hearings to bring democracy into their decisions, and traveled to Seattle to learn from the Washington State ferry service. His eagerness to modernize SSA operations with a second term was rebuffed at the county level, despite the unanimous support of the Islands’ select boards.
Riggs then served two terms on the Chilmark select board, using his legal skills to rewrite the harbor regulations and create a cell service bylaw; he spent hundreds of hours negotiating property rights and obtaining permits necessary to develop the Middle Line Road affordable housing project.
He liked to introduce himself as someone who had logged more than 40,000 miles at sea. More than 15 years after he had last been ashore on Staniel Cay with Emma, when he returned to introduce Helen to the Exumas in 2011, he was greeted with welcoming arms thrown into the air. “It’s the big captain!” the islanders cheered. And so he has been, and always will be, to ever so many of us.
Riggs is survived by his wife Helen, his brother Tony and his wife Joyce, six birth children and spouses, seven step-children and spouses, 34 grandchildren and their spouses, and 20 unmarried great-grandchildren.
A farewell graveside service with military honors is planned for early fall.
For online guestbook and more information, please visit chapmanfuneral.com.
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