Late LA Mayor Riordan’s support for Catholic education had deep roots
Six years before Richard Riordan was elected by an overwhelming margin as mayor of Los Angeles, the first Catholic to serve as the city’s mayor in the modern era, he was a founding trustee and the first president of the Catholic Education Foundation of Los Angeles (CEF).
Riordan, known as a pragmatic philanthropist, would later describe his work in education as “the thing I am most proud of having done in my life.”
Riordan, who died at the age of 92 on April 19, was L.A.’s 39th mayor and, by his own doing, served just two terms, from 1993 to 2001. It came after two mayors — Sam Yorty and Tom Bradley — who had held the position for a combined 32 years.