Bret Riggle

Bret Riggle passed on to peace, rest and his next great adventure after a long intense battle with cancer on Sunday morning, September 22, 2024. Bret was born on April 1, 1980 to John Riggle and Marlene Schaefer in Littleton, Colorado. As a lifelong, good natured trickster, he always embraced his April’s Fools Day birthright and so family and friends could always count on Bret to keep them laughing and smiling with a silly prank or a joke. 

Throughout his life, Bret’s unquenchable thirst for knowledge pushed him to become a well-studied, academic, spiritual and philosophical student which prompted his siblings to give him the nickname “The Professor.”  Bret attended high school at Dallastown High School in Pennsylvania and some of his closest friendships are still those he forged during his middle school and high school years in York, Pa. During his senior year of high school, he moved to Provo and started his first year of college at Utah Valley University, while also earning his high school degree. He earned his Bachelor of  Construction Management from UVU and then went on to earn a Master of Project Management from Colorado Technical University. 

Bret spent his life dedicated to studying and emulating the Savior. He committed two years as a young man to serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Ukraine, where he learned to speak both Russian and Ukrainian. His love for the Ukrainian people burned brightly and he continued to keep in contact with many of those he taught there.  

Following his mission, Bret met the light and love of his life. On October 20, 2005, he married Jessica Turnbow with whom he found a partner to laugh, dance, and raise their three children, Cody, Alexandra and Gabe. Their love story has spanned the United States and the world. His work projects in construction management took him and his family all over the U.S. and as far as New Zealand. He had a passion for building lasting places of value and worked in several construction fields including housing, commercial, industrial, and oil & gas. Some of the places of employment were at Parsons, Kingsley, Naylor Love, Worley Parsons, Big-D, and ended at Hansen-Rice Inc.

Bret sought adventure all his life and was always teaching others to discover the beautiful places of the world, while challenging them to climb mountains, scale cliffs and create experiences. He loved rock and ice climbing and passed this love onto anyone he could. He was always excited to teach and create experiences for others to climb. Bret loved the outdoors, the ocean being his favorite. He taught himself to surf, free dive, and was scuba certified. When living in New Zealand, if he wasn’t at work he was in the ocean. 

Bret loved the challenge of using his mind and hands to create and used his creative personality to share his favorite things with those around him. He was a fantastic cook and enjoyed spoiling his family and anyone else he could with his cooking. He also had a mind where he could fix anything. There wasn’t a task too small or too large that Bret couldn’t solve and he loved to accept the challenge of a new project. 

The lifelong adventurer finished his journey in this world with the knowledge he had filled every moment with discovery, love, service, and hope. He was a fighter for all that was good and would never back down from a challenge, whether that was scaling a mountain, learning a new skill, discovering a new way to do something, or fighting cancer.  Cancer was his greatest challenge and in many ways he beat cancer over and over again as he found ways to overcome pain and prolong his time and ability to share his life with his family.  He will be remembered as a fighter who fought with grace and inspired so many. He was a force of all things good and full of light. He knew how to connect with the one and how to make everyone he knew and met feel special and loved. If you knew Bret, you knew he loved you and wanted you to be the best version of yourself you could be, and to rely on God to help you get to that place. During his last moments on this earth, Bret continued to share his testimony of his Savior during painful moments and often reminded family that those moments helped him understand Christ and that Christ helped him through the hardest parts of his journey. His faith and endurance stands as a lighthouse for all those who knew him. His ability to live every moment of life to its fullest will be remembered forever by those whom he taught to experience the wonder of life.

Bret is survived by his wife, Jessica, his children, Cody, Alexandra and Gabe, his mother, Marlene, his sisters, Rachelle, Colette and Nicole and his brothers Nathan and Jacob. He is reunited with his father John, who preceded him in death.

We love you Bret and we will keep the lighthouse beacon lit as we share your message of light and love. 

Bret’s funeral services will be held this Saturday, September 28th at 10 a.m. Services will be held at 5501 N Meridian Rd, Meridian, ID 83646. Everyone is welcome to come and join our family in honoring his life and memory