James Richard Riordan II (December 31, 1949 – August 14, 2022) was an American politician.

Personal life

Born in December 1949, James Richard Riordan II was the eldest of five children born to parents James Richard Riordan I and his wife Therese. The family lived on a farm near Boone, Iowa, and Riordan II graduated from the city's Ryan High School in 1968. Shortly after earning his bachelor's degree from

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

in 1975, Riordan married Rhoda Quade, with whom he raised three children. The couple separated in 2015. Riordan owned the Ashworth Acres tree nursery near

Waukee Waukee is a city in Dallas County, Iowa, United States. The population was 23,940 at the time of the 2020 U.S. Census. It is part of the Des Moines – West Des Moines Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 2017, Apple Inc. chose Waukee as the loc ...

, and later worked as a researcher and writer of grants and contracts for Des Moines Area Community College. Riordan died on August 14, 2022, of aspiration pneumonia and COVID-19.

Political career

Politically, Riordan was affiliated with the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. He worked as an administrative assistant for Robert T. Anderson, an aide to

Tom Harkin Thomas Richard Harkin (born November 19, 1939) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as a United States senator from Iowa from 1985 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was the U.S. representative for Iowa' ...

, and was staff director of the United States Senate Democratic Caucus before winning a seat on the

Iowa Senate The Iowa Senate is the upper house of the Iowa General Assembly, United States. There are 50 seats in the Iowa Senate, representing 50 single-member districts across the state of Iowa with populations of approximately 60,927 per constituency, . ...

in 1985. Riordan held the District 45 seat from September 10, 1985, to January 10, 1993, and subsequently represented

District 39 A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

until January 8, 1995.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riordan, James R. 1949 births 2022 deaths Iowa State University alumni Democratic Party Iowa state senators 20th-century American politicians American horticulture businesspeople Businesspeople from Iowa Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Iowa 20th-century American businesspeople