Myrt Riggs (left) and Allison Dean Love (right)
Myrt Riggs is a special gift to all of us, not just the Highway Safety world. Ms. Riggs was instrumental in creating the National Association of Women Highway Safety Leaders (NAWHSL) which I am now our State Representative. Ms. Riggs changed my life and so many lives around her, even without her knowing.
Here is an article written about Myrt in 2003. She has since retired from the majority of her posts.
WHY CAN'T THE WOMEN?
Volunteer. Cancer survivor. Matriarch. Advocate. Businesswoman. Representative. Sports nut. Myrt Bradham Riggs ’46 embodies them all, and
then some.
The 85-year-old alumna began her own career of helping others
by helping out family. “I lost my parents fairly young,” she says.
“As the oldest of 11, I took in my two younger brothers. My
mother was very much like I am; she was very devoted to family.
And a very independent thinker. Some of it must’ve rubbed off. I
have always felt like if the men can do it, why can’t the women?”
A quick study of her life reveals the truth in her words. Riggs
owned and operated the Mt. Vernon Hotel in West Ashley
for more than 16 years. She was the organizing force behind
the Charleston Travel Council (1974–1976), a precursor to
the Charleston Area Convention and Visitor Bureau’s group
of the same name. On the volunteer front, Riggs was the first
woman appointed as chair of a county parks and playground
commission when she was named director of the St. Andrew’s
Commission. She has served as the S.C. representative for the
National Association of Women Highway Safety Leaders since
1968 and was its president from 1987 to 1991. And Senator
Strom Thurmond appointed her to the Patriots Point Board in
1976 – a board she served on for 15 years. One of her proudest
achievements is that she was the first woman on the board of
the Oak Grove Children’s Center (now the Carolina Youth
Development Center). “Also,” she says, “I was one of the original
appointees for the zoning board of appeals for Charleston
County, and the only woman. I was replaced by a man and they
haven’t had a woman since.”
One of the College’s most honored alumni (she received the
Alumni Award of Honor in 2003), Riggs has been recognized
with so many commendations and plaques for her community
service efforts that she has run out of wall space on which to
display them. “I have one little room that I call my study – the
walls are covered with them. I have more in boxes,” she says.
Some of the awards that stand out are her induction into the
Charleston Federation of Women’s Clubs Hall of Fame and her
Order of the Palmetto, the highest civilian honor in the state.
All of this, and Riggs never actually graduated from the
College – she left with only one semester to go. She had been
encouraged to take classes at the College by her first husband,
Dick Bradham ’38. Unfortunately, “my mother-in-law died,
and she had been the one looking after my four-year-old child
(future alumna Helen Bradham Furnas ’63) when I went to
class,” she says. “I just haven’t gone back for that last semester.”
The English and history double major says not having a degree
hasn’t kept her from taking an active role in the development of
the College, however. Riggs has been vice president of the Alumni
Association and treasurer of the College’s Foundation Board. “I
was even the first life member of the Alumni Association,” she
says, laughing.
A great CofC sports fan, Riggs is a member of the Cougar
Club Board as well as a familiar face at most sporting events. She
attends every home and away game she can get to.
“It keeps me busy,” she says of her support of the College and
her active community service. “I’m thankful to be helpful, to
have the opportunity to be helpful and doing things. I’ve been
in volunteer work all of my life.”
Riggs has no plans to retire from her volunteer
commitments any time soon. In fact, over the summer she
spent a week in Norfolk, Va., leading workshops on safety to
crowds of more than 100 people. “I’m afraid if I slow down,
I’ll just stop completely,” she says. “If you’re enjoying what
you’re doing, it makes a difference. And I’ve enjoyed every
minute of being involved.”
