Remembering Riley, the Leader and the Man

Nearly 500 of Orange County’s top government, business and military leaders paid tribute Monday to the late Thomas F. Riley, the retired Marine Corps general whose 20-year tenure on the Board of Supervisors was marked by rapid growth that transformed the county.

The ceremony, one of the closest to a state funeral ever seen in Orange County, was marked by a 21-gun salute, the playing of taps, and a Marine honor guard bearing the flag-covered coffin. A brigadier general escorted Riley’s widow, business magnates dotted the pews and hundreds of county employees filled Our Lady Queen of Angel’s Church.

While Riley’s role in the development of South County and the acquisition of park land was lauded, speakers at the funeral Mass primarily focused on his approach to life.

“In government, in the military and in his community, he was all giving to his fellow man,” said the Rev. Michael P. Driscoll, auxiliary bishop of Orange. “He showed that you could be a moral person and be a politician, that you could be a good person and be a politician.”

Riley died Thursday at his home in Newport Beach at age 85. Doctors listed the cause of death as cardiac arrest, though Riley had suffered a variety of serious health setbacks--including diabetes that forced the amputation of an infected foot--since leaving the Board of Supervisors in December 1994.

Tony Moiso, the chief executive officer of the Rancho Mission Viejo Co. and one of Riley’s best friends, said the former supervisor’s fighting spirit in the face of his health problems was as impressive as his accomplishments in the military or in county government.

“His body was becoming more and more frail . . . but he had great dignity,” Moiso said.

Last March, a few months after surgery, Riley attended the Gentleman’s Haberdashery, a fashion show in which movers and shakers serve as models.

“We knew he was in great pain,” Moiso recalled. “But he held his head up. . . . He was there with a smile.”

The stately funeral reflected the inspirations in Riley’s life and his stamp on the growth of the county. It was at the church that Riley and his wife, Emma Jean, helped build. The quiet of the memorial was interrupted every so often by the roar of jets from nearby John Wayne Airport--where the main terminal is named for him.

Seated in the front rows were former and sitting supervisors, Irvine Co. Chief Executive Officer Donald Bren, fast-food magnate Carl Karcher, Moiso and two lobbyists who worked with Riley and became close family friends. Members of the Knights of Malta and the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, Riley’s favorite charity, were seated behind them.

Filling the remaining half of the church were hundreds of former and current county employees, members of the “county family” that Riley often spoke of. They included many who went on to take powerful jobs in government, such as Assemblywoman Marilyn Brewer (R-Irvine).

Among the sea of faces from the county’s past were former supervisors Don Roth, Harriett Wieder, Gaddi Vasquez and Ralph B. Clark.

Emma Jane Riley said her husband would have liked the funeral, which had both somber reflections and upbeat guitar-led songs. People liked him so much, she said, because he liked people so much.

“I think he would have liked all of it, the ceremony of it, the people,” she said afterward. “I appreciated the fact that he was on the Board of Supervisors and with Orange County, because that really kept him alive. We’ll all miss him.”

During his eulogy, Moiso said that Riley served the county faithfully, even during his last month in office when the county plunged into bankruptcy.

“He handled it with great dignity amid all the finger-pointing and blame,” Moiso said. “It happened on his watch. And he didn’t look for excuses.”

After the eulogy, the choirs sang “America the Beautiful,” and Riley’s coffin was carried out of the church by a Marine honor guard. In the foyer, priests sprinkled it with holy water, and the seven Marines draped the coffin with an American flag. Emma Jane Riley stood silently on the arm of Brig. Gen. Robert Magnus, commander of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Outside the church, Riley was honored with a 21-gun salute and a single trumpet playing taps.

He will be buried next week at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Shelby Grad and Jean O. Pasco can be reached at (714) 564-1033 or on the Internet at shelbygrad@latimes.com or jeanopasco@ latimes.com.