LOS ANGELES—Funeral services were pending April 20 for Richard Riordan, the venture capitalist who was Los Angeles’s mayor from 1993–2001 and faced the challenges of rebuilding the city—first from the Rodney King riots, then the Northridge earthquake.
Riordan “passed peacefully this evening at his home in Brentwood, surrounded by his wife Elizabeth, family, friends, and precious pet dogs,” his family announced April 19 night. Riordan was 92.
Riordan, the only Republican to hold the nonpartisan position since 1961, when Norris Poulson lost a bid for a third term, was elected in 1993, succeeding Tom Bradley, who held the position for a record 20 years.
Riordan took office slightly more than a year after the rioting that followed the verdict in the state trial of the Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the beating of motorist Rodney King, then had another challenge to face in his first year in office—the 1994 Northridge earthquake….