Rickey Briggle Obituary in Ankeny at Memorial Services of Iowa

Obituary For Rickey Briggle

“’I was born in my father’s house,’ begins Richard Nixon’s autobiography. Can mine be any less interesting? Perhaps.” “I was born in Boone, Iowa on the 28th day of June 1950. I remember because the Yankees lost in twelve innings to Boston.”

The above is an excerpt from Rick Briggle’s autobiography. The autobiography, which The New York Times called “a literary phenomenon, if we count the phenomenon of everyone pretending to read it,” was found by family while looking through family photographs in the hopes of finding any that would embarrass Rick.

Rick was raised in Des Moines. “My parents (Jack and Marvel Briggle, along with his sister, Kathy) moved to Des Moines and grudgingly took me along.” He attended North High School where “they continued their seemingly hopeless efforts to educate me until 1968 when they gave me a diploma in a final act of exasperation. I know it was 1968 because Arnold Palmer had won the British Open.”

Rick enrolled at the University of Northern Iowa in the fall of that year. He knew it “was 1968 because Rod Laver won Wimbledon.” He left UNI after three years, “a by now grateful institution,” and moved back to Des Moines.

Rick met his future wife, the former Rebecca Hartz, while at a party and sought to impress her by throwing her into a pool. Becky, unable to comprehend the facts already in evidence, later agreed to marry Rick, demonstrating some questionable decision-making skills of her own. Rick wrote of Becky, we “were married in the mid 70’s. I don’t remember the specific date and have had to sleep on the couch on more than one anniversary because of it.” We have it on good authority (Mom’s) that they married in January of 1975, although she too is unable to recall the exact date as is often seen in persons who have experienced a traumatic event.

Rick further wrote that “we have been blessed and cursed (depending on whether or not they are asleep) with two girls, Jessica (Andrew) and Christy.” “Believing in omens, there is still hope however, because on the day Christy was born, Ron Guidry threw a two-hit shutout, and the Yanks took a twi-nighter from the damn Red Sox.”

Rick tried more than a few jobs. Beginning as a paperboy, he held such jobs as bartender, shoe salesman, ditch digger, and insurance agent. He ultimately joined Polk County Sheriff’s Office in 1980 where he spent much of his professional career. Rick retired from PCSO as a Lieutenant. His reputation still stands today for his untouchable work ethic, as well as being revered as a supervisor. He claimed following his retirement that he still held the state record for the most OWI arrests in one year. This claim is still under investigation.

Rick and Becky were blessed to have several grandchildren. In a cruel twist of fate, all turned out to be girls, shattering Rick’s dreams of the gods righting the wrong thrust upon him by having been given two daughters himself. However, what those grandchildren lack for in Y chromosomes, they make up for in so many ways. Rick was immensely proud of his grandchildren – all of them: Whitney, Leena, Ellie, Brady and Ava.

Rick never was able to complete his autobiography, nor was he able to complete reading Nixon’s as he “fell asleep between the third and fourth pages.”

Somewhere Dad is yelling “but you never said, ‘to make a long story short!’” That is because your story wasn’t nearly long enough, Dad.

Visitation will be held from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 31, 2025, at Memorial Services of Iowa (4208 N. Ankeny Blvd). A memorial service will follow at 11:00 a.m. A reception will be held after the service at the Polk City American Legion (114 W. Broadway St., Polk City, IA).

In lieu of flowers, the family will be collecting donations for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office “Shop with a Cop” program, a charitable cause that provides under privileged children with gifts during the holiday season.

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