Rev. Raymond Riebs; Para los Ninos Co-Founder

The Rev. Raymond K. Riebs, a seminal figure in the establishment of the Para los Ninos school for Skid Row children in central Los Angeles, a missionary who led relief drives in Central and South America, and the first chaplain at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills, has died.

The Rev. John Farnsworth, associate pastor of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Studio City, where Riebs was rector emeritus, said Tuesday that his colleague was 77 when he died Nov. 28 after battling Parkinson’s disease for many years.

A native of Cincinnati and graduate of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., Riebs was working as a pastor in Dayton, Ohio, when he volunteered to do missionary work in Rio de Janeiro. He founded a home for poor children in Brazil, one of several he was to establish over the years.

He came back to the United States, served the Studio City church from 1959 to 1965 and became the first president of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council. He returned to South America, where he was archdeacon of a mission in Ecuador. In 1971, he moved to California and took over St. Jude’s Church in Burbank. He helped found the Para los Ninos Daycare Center, which was to serve as a cornerstone of the existing facilities at 6th Street and Gladys Avenue.

He left Burbank in 1975 to assist at Diocesan headquarters in Los Angeles and at about that time became the first staff chaplain at the motion picture home. Before that, volunteers had filled the role.

Survivors include his wife, Katherine, and sons Mark and Michael.

A Requiem Eucharist will be celebrated Sunday at 3:30 at St. Michael and All Angels Church, 3646 Coldwater Canyon Ave.