Dayton Riddle was longtime team physician

As team physician for Furman athletics for more than 40 years, C. Dayton Riddle, Jr. ’53 was a familiar figure along the sidelines at Paladin games both home and away.

And while his talents were highly regarded by the university, he was a leader in the Greenville medical community as well. For many years he was in private practice with the Piedmont Orthopaedic Clinic, was academic chair of the orthopaedic surgery department in the Greenville Hospital System, and was assistant chief of staff at Shriners Hospital. When he died January 17, he was chair emeritus of orthopaedic surgery at GHS.

Riddle, the son of a longtime Furman biology professor, served as an examiner for the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, as president of the South Carolina Orthopaedic Association, as a member of the South Carolina State Board of Medical Examiners and the House of Delegates for the South Carolina Medical Association, and as treasurer of the Greenville County Medical Society.

He earned the Bradshaw-Feaster Medal for General Excellence upon graduating from Furman and went on to be first honor graduate at the Medical University of South Carolina. He completed military service as a team physician at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Furman honored him in 1987 with the Algernon Sidney Sullivan Award for his high ideals and genuine service to others, and MUSC presented him its Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2004. The Frank H. Stelling and C. Dayton Riddle Orthopaedic Education and Research Laboratory at the Clemson University Biomedical and Bioengineering Translation Research Center was established in 2010, and the Clemson/Greenville Hospital System Patewood campus sponsors a lecture series that bears his name.

He is survived by his wife Anne, three children and three grandchildren. Memorials may be made to the C. Dayton Riddle, Jr., Endowed Scholarship at Furman.