Lessons from a Father

Dr. Daniel Rig­gs, oral sur­geon with Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG), is father to four sons, or the ​“band of broth­ers” as he calls them. Rais­ing them and see­ing them suc­ceed is his great­est achieve­ment. His sons cred­it him for where they are today.

The Rig­gs broth­ers, Eric, Ryan, Adam, and Evan, say their dad’s influ­ence heav­i­ly inspired their lives, includ­ing their careers. All four have gone on to have suc­cess­ful careers, with three of them fol­low­ing in their dad’s foot­steps into the med­ical field. All chose to attend Dr. Riggs’s alma mater, West­min­ster Col­lege, and join the same fra­ter­ni­ty of his father.

Eric earned his MBA and now works as an invest­ment con­sul­tant in St. Louis; Ryan is a gen­er­al den­tist in Quin­cy; Adam has his med­ical degree and is a pedi­atric res­i­dent at Children’s Mer­cy Hos­pi­tal in Kansas City, Mis­souri; and Evan has med­ical degree and is a gen­er­al surgery res­i­dent at Uni­ver­si­ty of Louisville in Kentucky.

A Strong Foun­da­tion
Health­care has been an inte­gral part of Dr. Riggs’s fam­i­ly life. Both he and his wife — Gin­ger, a reg­is­tered nurse at QMG — exposed their chil­dren to the impor­tance of car­ing for oth­ers. The boys all worked in Dr. Riggs’s office and that expe­ri­ence has undoubt­ed­ly influ­enced their aca­d­e­m­ic excel­lence, whether in the fields of sci­ence or business.

“The boys would come to the hos­pi­tal and sit in the nurs­es’ sta­tion while I saw patients on the week­end,” Dr. Rig­gs shared. ​“They learned about how to work with patients with empa­thy and compassion.”

Dr. Rig­gs recalls many cher­ished moments spent with his sons, from attend­ing St. Louis Car­di­nals base­ball games, high school and col­lege grad­u­a­tions, and count­less fam­i­ly gath­er­ings. These expe­ri­ences cre­at­ed a strong bond among the fam­i­ly, fos­ter­ing a sense of cama­raderie and friend­ship among the brothers.

“My proud­est moments have been watch­ing them progress into young men, pro­fes­sion­als, hus­bands, and fathers. They all have incred­i­ble sens­es of humor and they make me laugh,” he said. ​“It is incred­i­bly reward­ing to watch them be best friends to each oth­er and how quick­ly they ral­ly to each other’s defense in adver­si­ty. I enjoy learn­ing from each of them in their respec­tive fields. I am amazed at their insight and actu­al­ly lis­ten and take their advice. I am in awe of their intelligence.”

Dr. Rig­gs and Gin­ger encour­aged their chil­dren to excel aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of hard work and the impact they could make in their cho­sen fields.

Adam’s Jour­ney to Pedi­atrics
Adam, cur­rent­ly a pedi­atric res­i­dent physi­cian, cred­its his father for instill­ing in him a pas­sion for med­i­cine. The mem­o­ries of play­ing sports togeth­er cre­at­ed a spe­cial bond between them.

“From him teach­ing me how to play soc­cer and base­ball, to play­ing catch with him and my broth­ers in the back­yard, to going to Busch Sta­di­um with him and mom and my broth­ers to watch our beloved Car­di­nals play,” Adam shared. ​“I still remem­ber every game I played in. I’d look over to the side­lines and dad would be stand­ing there with mom, root­ing me on. I could always count on him to be there.”

Even into Adam’s adult years, he said he car­ries the lessons instilled him by his par­ents with him every day. Adam rec­og­nized his father’s com­pas­sion­ate nature and sought to emu­late it in his own career. Fol­low­ing his father’s guid­ance, he pur­sued a path in med­i­cine, aim­ing to make a pos­i­tive impact on the lives of young patients.

“I always looked up to Dad and thought it was cool to work in med­i­cine. For as long as I can remem­ber, I have want­ed to be like him one day and become a doc­tor. I am for­tu­nate to have a father like mine who has helped guide me into fol­low­ing my heart and pur­su­ing a career in med­i­cine where I can help peo­ple like he has all these years.”

Evan’s Path to Gen­er­al Surgery
Evan, a gen­er­al surgery res­i­dent, fond­ly recalls how his father guid­ed him through the piv­otal deci­sions in life. Dr. Riggs’s stead­fast sup­port and empha­sis on ser­vice ulti­mate­ly led Evan to the field of medicine.

Wit­ness­ing his father’s sac­ri­fice and com­mit­ment inspired him to pur­sue surgery.

“There is not a spe­cif­ic moment I knew I want­ed to pur­sue a career in med­i­cine. It was an accu­mu­la­tion of small moments that includ­ed observ­ing my father make a career out of sac­ri­fice and ser­vice, which had a tremen­dous impact on my deci­sion to become a sur­geon,” he said.

Evan’s grat­i­tude for his father’s guid­ance is immea­sur­able, as he embarks on a sur­gi­cal career to help oth­ers, just as his father did.

“For most of my child­hood, I want­ed to join the mil­i­tary with the goal of ser­vice. At some point, my father con­vinced me that my tal­ents and desire for ser­vice would be bet­ter achieved through the field of med­i­cine,” Evan shared. ​“Since then, I have fall­en in love with surgery, just like he did. It’s a gift I can nev­er repay him for.”

Ryan’s Den­tal Pur­suit
Ryan, a den­tist, said his dad’s com­mit­ment to his fam­i­ly always comes before any­thing else. Even with his busy sched­ule, Dr. Rig­gs always made time for his boys.

“I think my favorite mem­o­ries grow­ing up con­tin­u­al­ly come back to our time spent play­ing ball in the back­yard and mess­ing around with my broth­ers. He always dropped every­thing when­ev­er pos­si­ble to take part in play­ing catch, kick­ing the soc­cer ball, or rough hous­ing with us,” said Ryan.

From a young age, Ryan knew he would pur­sue a career in health­care and decid­ed on den­tistry dur­ing his junior year of col­lege. He got to see his dad first­hand in action, which gave him a greater respect for him.

“Dur­ing my sum­mers in col­lege lead­ing up to and fol­low­ing that time, I worked at my father’s office assist­ing with anes­the­sia and oth­er tasks around the office. It allowed me to see first­hand my father’s most valu­able gift as a prac­ti­tion­er,” Ryan said. He’s shown me that when you tru­ly show your real self to patients and treat every­one as you wish to be treat­ed, patients see, and most impor­tant­ly, feel the difference.”

Eric’s Finan­cial Impact
Eric, an invest­ment con­sul­tant, has also been influ­enced by his father’s val­ues and work eth­ic. Dr. Rig­gs impart­ed the impor­tance of fam­i­ly, deter­mi­na­tion, and the pur­suit of mean­ing­ful work. Eric’s career didn’t take the same path as his broth­ers. He was guid­ed by his par­ents’ encour­age­ment to align his tal­ents and inter­ests, ulti­mate­ly lead­ing him to a role where he can pos­i­tive­ly impact the lives of oth­ers through his finan­cial expertise.

“Watch­ing him serve oth­ers for 30+ years has always inspired me to search for a way that I can use my skills to bet­ter oth­er peo­ple,” Eric said. ​“He has also been an exam­ple of grit and deter­mi­na­tion that has remind­ed me that with enough per­sis­tence, all prob­lems have a solution.”

Just like his broth­ers, he knew his dad would always be there for him through it all. Dr. Rig­gs taught him the impor­tance of putting fam­i­ly and instill­ing con­fi­dence in each of his sons.

“He has also always pushed me to ful­fill my poten­tial by doing my best and help­ing me real­ize that as long as I’m work­ing hard and learn­ing then the results will work them­selves out,” he shared.

The Most Impor­tant Les­son
As we cel­e­brate Father’s Day, we cel­e­brate the impor­tant role fathers and father fig­ures have on their chil­dren. Dr. Rig­gs has had and con­tin­ues to have a pro­found impact on the lives of his sons — Eric, Ryan, Adam, and Evan.

Eric shared the most valu­able les­son, ​“The most impor­tant thing my dad taught me is the impor­tance of always putting your fam­i­ly first. Friends, jobs, mate­r­i­al objects — those all come and go, but your fam­i­ly will always be the most impor­tant thing you have.”