Bio

Richard “Marty” Riggs Richard “Marty” Riggs was born and raised in the south Kansas City, Mo. area and graduated from Grandview Senior High School in 1969. He attended Missouri Valley College and in 1973 graduated with a B.S. degree with a double major in political science and history. During his senior year of college, he married his college sweetheart, Marsha Pilkey. After graduation, Marty and Marsha moved to Grandview, Mo. where he began his teaching career as an eighth grade social studies teacher and football, basketball, and track coach at Grandview East Junior High School.

After teaching at Grandview four years Marty moved to Trenton, Mo. where he taught high school social studies and coached football, basketball, and track. In 1979 Marty received his Master’s of Education degree in secondary administration from Northeast Missouri State University (renamed Truman State University) in Kirksville, Mo.

In 1980, the Riggs’ moved their family to Lowry City, Mo. where Marty became principal at Lakeland High School. In 1982 Marty became the assistant principal at Sullivan High School, in Sullivan, Mo. While at Sullivan Marty earned his National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) Advance Principal’s Certificate, through the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

In 1986, Marty moved to Meramec Valley R-III High School and continued to serve as an assistant principal. From 1989-1999, Marty was the principal at Windsor C-1 High School in Imperial, Mo. While serving as principal at Windsor, Marty began working on his doctorate degree through Saint Louis University.

In the spring of 1998 Marty accepted a principal’s position at Washington High School in Washington, Mo. In May of 2000, Marty received his doctorate degree from Saint Louis University as a Doctor of Education with an emphasis in educational leadership. Marty retired from Washington High School in 2007 after 34 years in education.

Marty and Marsha have two children, Kurt and Celestia “Lessie,” and two grandchildren. They reside in Washington, Mo.