Alice Shepard (Riggs) was born in Turkey when her parents were medical missionaries. Imagine how long she must have traveled to enroll at Syracuse University in the fall of 1905. There, she became a member of Delta Gamma.
She wrote the Rho Chapter report in Volume 26 of The Anchora and ended it with this:
One of the happiest times of the week in Rho house is the supper hour on Sunday evening when we all gather in the library where the grate fire sends out a homey glow and where the best ‘eats’ are passed around from chafing dishes, salad bowls and cake plates. The good old Delta Gamma song book holds its own with other music in these home parties.
Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, she graduated in 1910. Shortly afterwards, she married
Ernest W. Riggs, a Princeton grad, in 1910. He also was the son of missionaries and the couple began serving college communities in Turkey, Lebanon and Greece. He was President of Euphrates College until 1915, when it was forced to close because of the turmoil.
A 1916 Anchora included this item about Riggs and her family. Her father had died in December 1915:
An article by Riggs, entitled “Cry of the Child,” appeared in 1919. This is the introduction:
In this Anchora you will find an article on Armenian children, written by a Delta Gamma who has spent the last eight and a half years in Armenia at Harpoot, where her husband is president of the Euphrates College. Alice Shepard Riggs (Rho) has been home only a few months, and has seen the Armenia atrocities at first-hand. She brought to America with her a charming young Armenian girl whom she and her husband have adopted in order to save her from the brutal hands of the German-inspired Turks. I believe Delta Gamma would be happy to help Mrs. Riggs in her work for these Armenian orphans. The fact that we would be helping a sister Delta Gamma will give to each one of us a special interest in the work.
In 1920, Riggs wrote Shepard of Aintab, a biography of Dr. Fred Douglas Shepard, her father.
In November 1942, while in California she spoke to the Santa Cruz Woman’s Club. Billed as a writer and lecturer, Riggs talk was called From Harem Life to Aviation. She, “in her girlhood, grew intimate with the life of Turkey, speaking its language, learning its folk-tales and songs.”
For a talk in February of 1950, the announcement promised, “Mrs. Riggs will tell many historical and personal experiences of life in the Near East.” In 1951, she spoke to the Delta Gamma who attended the District Convention in Ithaca, New York.
The American Board Mission newsletter of February 9, 1950, written in Istanbul, Turkey, carried this note about the couple visiting her brother. In 1933 Ernest Riggs became President of Anatolia College:
President Ernest Riggs of Anatolia College, Thessalonkiki, and Alice Shepard Riggs arrived in Istanbul on the 7th to spend a week with Dr. and Mrs. Shepard. The Riggses retire this summer from Anatolia College and this trip is perhaps a ‘once over’ farewell to this country, in which they both grew up, and where they served for so many years.
Ernest Riggs died in 1952, but his wife continued as a trustee of Anatolia College. She wrote a history of her years at the college.
In 1962, Riggs was honored with the Delta Gamma Rose Award for an “outstanding contribution to the world in her chosen field through her individual effort and talents.” Alice Shepard Riggs died in Vermont in 1983.
Today, March 15, is the date upon which Delta Gamma celebrates Founders’ Day. Happy Founders’ Day, Delta Gamma friends!
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