Peter E. Riddle Obituary

Peter Riddle, a retired judge of the California Superior Court for the County of San Diego and a former U.S. Navy SEAL, died in Coronado March 4 from the effects of Lewy body dementia. He was 76.

Born in Chicago, Riddle graduated from Yale in 1960, where he played tight end for the football team. “He was much admired and a big star,” says his college classmate Barry Schaller, a retired Connecticut Supreme Court justice who teaches at Yale Law School. “Our classmates remember his effort and courage on the football field. He was always so modest, unassuming, a good listener, and always engaged in what others were saying.”

As a member of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, Riddle was first assigned to a destroyer. He then graduated with Underwater Demolition Basic Training Class 28 in 1962, and worked as a platoon officer with UDT-12. Following his separation from active duty, he earned a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1966. Soon Riddle returned to active duty with SEAL Team ONE.

“Seeing thousands of teenage draftees being sent to Vietnam, Pete thought it wrong that he, a trained, older Reserve officer should stay behind,” recalls Rear Adm. Cathal Flynn, a friend and fellow member of SEAL Team ONE. “He didn’t see there was a choice to be made. He stepped up. He told the SEAL team’s commanding officer that he wanted to serve his country, but not at a desk. He requested deployment to Vietnam. The Commanding Officer, who knew and valued Pete, so ordered it.”

Is that a knife between his teeth? Of course it is.

Riddle engaged in classified special operations in Vietnam, for which his detachment later received the U.S. Presidential Unit Citation. After the war, he continued to serve in the Naval Reserve, retiring with the rank of Captain.

Following a brief stint working as an advance man for Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s presidential primary campaign in 1968, Riddle settled in Coronado, where he resided for the next 46 years. There he raised two daughters with his first wife, Sandra Justice, served on the Coronado City Council, and started a private law practice in San Diego. He was appointed to the bench in 1987.

Riddle’s assignments in San Diego County courts included Probate, Civil Litigation, Juvenile Delinquency, and Juvenile Dependency. He said he took his greatest satisfaction from his work with cases helping neglected and abused children in Juvenile Dependency.

“Judge Riddle dedicated his life to public service, both as a distinguished Naval officer and a distinguished jurist,” says retired San Diego Superior Court judge William Pate, a longtime friend and colleague. “He sought out those assignments that most heavily impacted families in times of stress. As a Juvenile Court judge, he spent years working with families and juveniles in trouble. His decisions always followed a thorough review of the matter. He exercised sound judgment and compassion for those appearing before him. He was the perfect example of what every judge should strive to be.” Riddle continued working part-time in Juvenile Dependency for a few years after his official retirement in 2000.

An avid sportsman, Riddle maintained a high level of fitness by competing in running, swimming, and triathlon events over four decades. Elizabeth Jordan, his wife of 20 years and an International Swimming Hall of Fame inductee, shared his passion for U.S. Masters Swimming races. His self-described “workmanlike” performances never permitted him to keep pace with her. This provided a perpetual source of self-effacing amusement for Riddle, despite his accomplishments in that arena.

Loved by all who knew him for his gracious manner and pithy aphorisms, Riddle’s humor and resolve suffused colleagues and friends in the courtroom, the military, swimming pool, and ocean. Those who benefited most, however, were his family members, who relished his full attention on every matter from education to athletic events to sand castle construction.

His survivors include his wife, Elizabeth Jordan, of Coronado, daughters Katherine Nichols, of Boston, Mass., and Susan Whiting, of Coppell, Texas, and brother, William Riddle, of San Francisco. His eldest brother, Hugh Riddle, Jr., passed away in 1996. With Jordan, a former UCSD Humanities professor, Riddle enjoyed a blended family that also included four stepchildren and 11 grandchildren. He left an indelible impression on all of their lives.

A Celebration of Life will take place at 11 A.M. Sunday, April 12, at the Skyline Terrace, Coronado Island Marriott Resort, 2000 2^nd St., Coronado, CA.