Lester David Riggs was born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, in 1880, and died in Fort Lyon Colorado in 1963. He married Bertha L. VanKirk (née Culver) in 1912. She died at Fort Thompson, South Dakota, on April 3rd, 1940, after having succumbed to cancer. Riggs's parents were William Bates Riggs and Mary Priscilla Riggs (nee Nelson). He had three siblings: Leo Bates Riggs, Wanda E. Riggs, and Vera Lewis (nee Riggs). His father, William Bates Riggs, was originally from Pennsylvania, however in 1881, had moved to Belleville, Ontario. For part of his medical career, Dr. Lester David Riggs was a doctor for natives at the Tapwai Sanitarium, Federal Public Health Service at the Naval Sanitarium in Las Animas Colorado, in Valentine Colorado.