Maude D. Riordan, 94, a retired Prince George’s County teacher, died June 26 of natural causes at her Beltsville home. She was 94.
Mrs. Riordan grew up on a farm in Fresno, Calif., with seven brothers and sisters.
She married John Riordan in 1936, during their junior year at the University of California at Berkeley. Mrs. Riordan interrupted her studies to support the family while her husband earned his undergraduate degree. In 1938, they spent a summer abroad in Heidelberg, Germany, while he pursued a doctorate.
Mrs. Riordan raised her two children while her husband fought with the Navy in the South Pacific during World War II. The Riordans lived in Indiana in 1946 and in Charlottesville from 1947 to 1953 while Mr. Riordan held professorship posts at Indiana University and the University of Virginia.
At the outbreak of the Korean War, Mr. Riordan was called back to active duty. He was assigned to Frankfurt, West Germany, where the family lived from 1953 to 1955. She performed many charitable works with East European refugees at the time.
In 1961, the Riordans moved to Tokyo, where she graduated from a yearlong course of study in ikebana at the Ichiyo School of Floral Design.
She practiced flower arranging for 20 years while on the Altar Guild at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Beltsville. She also mastered the Washington National Cathedral course in large floral displays.
The family moved in 1963 to the College Park area, and Mrs. Riordan received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Maryland.
Mrs. Riordan taught for many years at several elementary schools in Prince George’s County, including Seabrook, Beltsville, and Cherry Hill.
John Riordan, her husband of 68 years, died in June last year.
She is survived by a daughter, Kathleen O’Riordan of Alexandria; a sister, Betty Watson of Fresno.; a brother, Walter F. Debold of Alameda, Calif.; three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
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