Remembering Herb Riggle: The Can-Do Captain of Cottonwood Cove
October 14, 2026 | Team Member Spotlights
If you ask anyone who worked alongside Herb Riggle to describe him, the same words come up again and again: resourceful, calm, humble, and always ready to help. Herb, a fixture at Cottonwood Cove on Lake Mojave, passed away peacefully at home on September 19, 2026, at age 63. He leaves behind a legacy that stretches well beyond the marina docks.
“I feel like everybody really adored him. He was a big part of the community,” said Brandy Frederich, Vice President of Hospitality. “[He] could always put a smile on somebody’s face,” she said.
A Lifelong Love of the Lake
Herb’s love of boating began in childhood when his parents brought him to Overton Beach on Lake Mead to go water-skiing. He later started his career as a mechanic, building hands-on skills that would define his working life. On Memorial Day Weekend of 1999, Herb began working on Lake Mead, and he told his wife, Lorrie, that he had found his dream job.
He worked at Echo Bay Marina until 2003, and he returned in 2010 because he missed it so much. He worked for Callville Bay and later moved to Cottonwood Cove in 2018. Along the way, he steadily advanced through leadership roles, and he earned the Certified Marina Manager (CMM) designation.
The Fix-It Guy
Rod Taylor, a former Guest Services employee who worked with Herb for many years, remembers him as the person you’d call when something needed solving. “He was a fix-it guy,” Rod said. “[If] you had a problem, whether it was mechanical or something on the boats, and you’d say, ‘Ok, Herb, I need you to step in here.’ … he would do that,” said Rod. “He was always so calm about everything.”
Rod likens great marina general managers to starship captains, and compares Herb to Captain Kirk, who famously beat Star Trek’s “unwinnable” Kobayashi Maru test. “You could give him that unwinnable test, and he would make it happen.”
One story proves the point. When shifting lake levels left one of his houseboats stranded on a beach overnight, Herb drove a backhoe 10 miles out into the desert and down a canyon to free it. “That’s ingenuity at its finest,” Rod said.
Herb also had a famous quirk: he ran everything from his phone. Need a piece of information? Herb had it, even on a phone with a cracked screen from being dropped one too many times. “He didn’t use his computer,” Rod laughed. “He used that little phone for everything.”
Lisa Duncan, Senior Director of Operations, Lake Mead Mohave Adventures, knows that phone well. “Herb’s phone was an extension of him,” Lisa said. “His first words, whether he called me or I called him, were ‘What are you doing?’ This became a game with us.” Sure enough, Herb would be in a ditch fixing a broken water line or out on the lake rescuing a houseboat. “He never stopped moving.”
Generous with His Time
Herb’s knowledge of the marina world was unmatched across Lake Mead and Lake Mojave, and he shared it freely. “If anything was happening at one of the other marinas, he was the first to say, ‘I think I have something that I can help you with,'” Brandy said. “It didn’t matter if it was his day off or not. He was there to help somebody when they needed it.”
Guests felt the same warmth. Kim Roundtree, former Guest Services employee who also worked alongside Herb, recently learned that her brother, who lives in the Los Angeles area, had even heard of Herb through friends who visited Cottonwood Cove and always counted on him to help find a spot for their boat.
Papa, Racer, and Family Man
Herb held immense love and pride for his family: Lorrie, his wife of more than 40 years, their five children and their spouses, and 10 grandchildren. To his grandkids, he was simply “Papa,” shared Kim, and “they’d go jump on his lap” whenever he sat down, she said.
Another passion of Herb’s was drag boat racing. At his service, many family members wore bright orange, the color of his drag boat, Just Another Toy, in his honor. Rod, who has raced drag boats since the 1960s, shared that passion with Herb. He had recently given Herb engine parts that belonged to his late father, with plans to build a nostalgic engine together and race in Texas. That dream may still come true: Herb’s oldest son, James, hopes to run the boat.
A Humble Gentleman
For all his knowledge and accomplishments, Herb never put himself above anyone. “He always found the joy in what he was doing, even during the difficult [times],” Brandy said. “[He was] just a humble gentleman.”
To Lisa, Herb was “a teacher, a mentor, and most importantly my friend,” someone to call after a rough day. “He was not a glass half empty type of person. His glass was full and overflowing, and he wanted to share that with everyone,” said Lisa.
His work lives on in the people he mentored and the projects he set in motion, and Rod is confident that many around Cottonwood Cove will help carry that torch. For those who never had the chance to meet him, Kim summed it up best: “If you didn’t get to meet him, you missed out.”