The life of former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan will be celebrated in a memorial Mass Friday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
Riordan, mayor of LA from 1993 to 2001, died Wednesday at age 92.
Archbishop José H. Gomez will preside over the 2 p.m. Mass at the cathedral in downtown Los Angeles. The homily will be delivered by Msgr. Lloyd Torgerson, pastor at St. Monica Catholic Church, which was Riordan’s parish, according to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
LA Mayor Karen Bass is expected to attend.
Watch the service beginning at 2 p.m. PST on NBCLA’s Roku Channel 4107 and on Samsung TV Plus on Channel 1035.
The Mass will also be live-streamed on YouTube.
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Riordan was remembered by colleagues and others for helping rebuild Los Angeles after the violence that followed the verdicts in the Rodney King beating and the 1994 Northridge earthquake. He helped expedite construction of Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels following damage to its predecessor, the Cathedral of Saint Vibiana, in the Northridge earthquake.
The new cathedral opened in 2002.
Riordan’s death produced an outpouring of tributes, including the illumination in city colors last Thursday night of City Hall, the Richard J. Riordan Central Library, the LAX pylons, the L.A. Zoo and the 6th Street Bridge.
Current and former lawmakers are remembering the contributions former mayor Richard Riordan made to the city of Los Angeles. Conan Nolan reports for the NBC4 News on Apr. 20, 2023.
A venture capitalist and LA restaurant owner, Riordan was the only Republican to hold the nonpartisan mayor’s position since 1961. Riordan succeeded Tom Bradley, who held the position for a record 20 years.
Riordan took office slightly more than a year after the verdict in the state trial of the Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the beating of Rodney King. Another challenge followed during his first year in office when the magnitude-6.7 Northridge quake struck Los Angeles.
Riordan was born May 1, 1930, and grew up in New Rochelle, New York. He attended Santa Clara University, where he played on the football team, and after two years transferred to Princeton.
Following his time at Princeton, he served in the Army in Korea and eventually moved to Southern California with his first wife, Eugenia “Genie” Warady. They had five children and he built a law practice, eventually founding Riordan & McKinzie. Riordan is survived by his fourth wife, Elizabeth Gregory,; three children; three grandchildren; and a sister.
We remember Richard Riordan, if not one of L-A’s greatest mayors certainly one of the city’s most consequential leaders. Navigating the way for the city during one of its most turbulent decades.
