Adrian Milton Riviere

Adrian Milton Riviere of Suwanee, Georgia passed away peacefully at home in the early morning hours of June 19, 2024. Born to James Horace and Elsie Douglas Riviere in Monticello, Arkansas on December 9, 1932, he was the oldest of two, with his brother James Charles arriving nine years later.

After an early childhood when his parents owned a florist shop and travelled to conferences around the southeast, the family moved to North Little Rock with the outbreak of World War II where his father gained work on the railroad and his mother taught in a one-room schoolhouse. They also owned and ran a small farm with fresh vegetables, an orchard with apples, plums and peaches, and had milk cows and chickens. This led to my dad’s lifelong commitment to NOT ever having a cow, i.e. anything that so ties one down that it is not possible to get away for a trip regardless of how important it might be.

He went away to college at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois outside of Chicago. After four years he graduated with a BA in Political Science, a wife of less than a year, Marty (Martha Van Der Eems), and their first son, Cliff (James Clifford). After suffering through a summer in Chicago they moved in with Horace and Elsie, where to help make ends meet Daddy set up a photo developer and took portraits and developed the film himself.

Then he entered Princeton Theological Seminary and earned his Masters of Divinity after three years, graduating in 1958. While there baby #2, John Kenneth was born. After graduation he accepted a calling to pastor All Souls Church in Scott, Arkansas. While there they welcomed baby #3, Jacqueline. They then moved to Little Rock when he accepted the position of Director of Christian Education for the Synod of Arkansas, PCUS, where baby # 4, Jeanette, was born and the family was complete. While still in Arkansas Milt started working on a second graduate degree, this time from Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan studying Christian Education. He took a sabbatical year to focus on his studies in 1965 when the family moved to NJ and moved in with Marty’s parents, John and Jenny (Abbink) Van Der Eems. While there he received an offer to take a teaching position at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decator, GA east of Atlanta, where he started teaching in the fall of 1966.

Friends and family members delighted in Marty and Milt’s generous hospitality, which continued when they moved to Tucker, Georgia in 1973 after Milt accepted the call to pastor Northwoods Presbyterian Church in the Atlanta suburb of Doraville.  Local and out-of-town guests exulted in lavish family dinners and evenings of laughter and music.

After Northwoods Milt accepted the position of Director of Court Partnership Services for the Presbyterian Church US.  His position allowed him to facilitate the merger of the PCUS (southern church) and the UPCUSA (northern church) to form the PC(USA) in 1983, which was the first time the US had a unified Presbyterian Church since before the civil war.  He then worked with a firm that (in addition to other work) built churches.  He eventually bought the church building  division and established his own company, ABC Construction, where he worked until his retirement.

His passion for photography continued for his entire life, including photos of family gatherings and their many European travels. He also had a gift for projects, that ranged from crafting his own frame from wood, building cabinetry, building out the downstairs of their house in Tucker, refinishing their first house at Bent Tree, and building a second Bent Tree home from scratch, The Timbers.

Together, Marty and Milt enjoyed a life of broad cultural engagement through their avid appreciation of music and theater, and particularly their love of European travel.  Perhaps their enormous love for their children is most dramatically exemplified by the generous gift of travel, as they treated each child with their spouse to a singular and enduringly memorable vacation in Europe.

Milt was preceded in death by his loving wife of 66.5 years, his parents, his brother Jim, and his daughter Jacqueline Smith. He is survived by his children Cliff (Judy), Kenneth (Mary Martha), Jacqueline’s husband Gregg Smith, and Jeanette Fleischer (Don). He will be loved, remembered, and missed by his grandchildren Melissa Riviere Hearn (Rich), Michael Riviere (Megan), Jessica Riviere (Sten Heinze), Alex Riviere (Alison), Grey Willow (Thorn), Grant Smith (Christie), Doug Riviere and Nikki Riviere, as well as Great Grandchildren Hailey Riviere, Becca and Bryan Hearn, JR and Logan Riviere, and Lynne Heinze.

A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, June 29, 2024 at 2:00 p.m. in the Chapel of Flanigan Funeral Home with Rev. Mary Jones officiating. The family will receive friends from 1:00 p.m. until time for the service at 2:00 p.m.

To express condolences, please sign our online guest book at www.flaniganfuneralhome.com.  Arrangements By: Junior E. Flanigan of Flanigan Funeral Home and Crematory, Buford, GA (770) 932-1133.