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A loyal supporter of Mount Saint Mary’s, former Los Angeles mayor Richard J. (Dick) Riordan passed away on April 20 at the age of 92. Los Angelenos who knew him as mayor (1993-2001), remember his unifying the city in the aftermath of the Rodney King injustices and riots in 1992 and then guiding the rebuilding of parts of the city following the devastating 1994 Northridge earthquake.

He was known for possessing a no-nonsense attitude toward his political affairs, running them with a deftness he honed during his career as lawyer and businessman in private equity. The maverick pivoted from those careers at age 63 to run for mayor, then eschewed the accompanying six-figure salary and served the city for eight years for a mere dollar per year.

To Mount Saint Mary’s University, Riordan was a friend and supporter for more than three decades through the generosity of The Riordan Foundation. He contributed to scholarships, sponsored events and was an ardent advocate of the Wellness Movement.

“One of the reasons the mayor was so pleased with the Mount is that it serves diverse, first generation college students,” says Mary (Arneson) Odell ’69, board chair of the Riordan Foundation.

Riordan sought to not only educate but provide tangible skills students could take with them to the workforce. For this reason, he became particularly interested in helping the Mount’s nursing program, so Odell approached Stephanie Cubba, vice president of Institutional Advancement. “I told Stephanie that he was interested in making a significant grant and asked her what the school needed,” she explained. “Dick's philosophy has always been to ask about what is needed, and if the need matches his mission, then we move forward.”

In 2019, the Riordan Foundation granted the Mount $2 million to launch the Riordan Fund for the Future of Nursing. This landmark gift created a three-year, three-pronged program: 1) to extend opportunities for the Bachelor of Science in nursing by creating a fully online RN to BSN degree; 2) to raise the quality in nursing through increased undergraduate opportunities for research and international travel, subsidized tutoring for nursing students, and faculty development; 3) to strengthen the nursing workforce’s resiliency and durability through a nursing student Wellness initiative. Like so much of what he touched, the grant proved to be a great success, with increases in student academic performance, notable improvements in nursing student well-being, and rich opportunities for faculty to grow in new ways.

The most visible success of Riordan’s grant is the expansion of the summer immersion program for select nursing students — a program that fulfills Mayor Riordan’s passions for building hands-on, workforce-ready skills for promising students of all backgrounds. Originating in 2016, the program exposes students to various clinical specialties, including those that all but eliminated from most undergraduate nursing school curricula, with a focus on areas seeing the most rapid decline in nurses. Mount students thus gain unique clinical experiences that makes them highly competitive candidates for jobs following graduation a year later. In turn, hospitals across Los Angeles in a wide range of communities are provided with qualified candidates whom they’ve already invested time and energy in and whose work they’ve already evaluated.

In January, the Foundation announced an additional grant of nearly $1.2 million to extend the program for three years. This summer will feature 16 clinical partners, and the number of student participants has grown from 25 last year to 40 in 2023. The program will continue to grow to allow 80 students per year to participate.

“I was deeply saddened to learn of the loss of Mayor Riordan, whose philanthropic spirit and passion for workforce development has made a lasting impact on our nursing students, their families and our community,” says Leah FitzGerald, PhD, FNP-BC, Fletcher Jones endowed chair in community partnerships, associate professor and project director of both the Riordan Fund for the Future of Nursing and the current Riordan Foundation grant. FitzGerald developed the immersion program in 2016 with another faculty member and has worked closely with the foundation. “I am forever grateful for his support of our programs that improve graduates’ career readiness and their capacity to deliver culturally competent, person-centered care to underserved populations. His legacy will live on through them.”

During a on Friday, April 28, Archbishop José H. Gomez noted that “Mayor Riordan was a devoted public servant, a generous philanthropist, a wise civic leader and a fine Christian gentleman, who worked hard to make life better for those he served, especially for the poorest Angelenos.” Mount Saint Mary’s University is indebted to that leadership and generosity, and holds dear the legacy of his kindness.