He was 93 years old. The funeral will take place on Tuesday 10, at 10.30, in the church of San Salvatore
IVREA
Farewell to an authentic gentleman: at the age of 93, on Friday 6, Oreste Riva, one of the last illustrious Ivorian people of a season without heirs, died. He went away forever while he was a guest at the Villa San Giacomo residence, in Caravino, where he had been transferred from the emergency room following a recent accidental fall on the staircase of his ancient house in Ivrea.
A correct, helpful and kind person, Riva was esteemed and appreciated by everyone and the news of his disappearance soon made a tour of the city. Former owner of the historic Libreria Garda, of which, for years, he had left the reins to his sons Alessandro and Paola, Riva represented a piece of the history of Ivrea, as evidenced by its carrying the name of his grandfather, Oreste Garda, which still stands today on the head of La Sentinella del Canavese, a newspaper he founded in 1893.
What is today the oldest newspaper in the area was, in fact, part of the history of his family to which it belonged until the 1950s, when he and his brother Ugo sold it to Adriano Olivetti. Among the episodes that make up the long history of the Sentinel, he used to remember one dating back to October 1926, director his father Alessandro Riva, son-in-law of Garda, when the newspaper, for its ideals of freedom, was censored by fascism and had to stop publication, as the regime had identified it as a dangerous enemy for its propaganda. His father died in 1942 and only on June 15, 1945, he and his brother, who succeeded him in the management and obtained the clearance from the allied government, were able to bring him back to the newsstands. Also to Oreste and Ugo Riva (who died in 1969) we owe the creation, in 1951, of the special edition dedicated to the Ivrea Carnival and, in particular, to the Mugnaia. That was the last important stage of the family newspaper before the change of ownership. Since then Riva devoted himself exclusively to his Garda bookshop, which for more than half a century has also been the branch office of the Italian Touring club.
An exemplary husband, father and grandfather, he lived a long and rewarding life, in health and well-being practically to the end. A life spent, for 62 years, alongside his wife, Lea Piana, also a well-known person and dean of the Ivrea merchants, with a yarn and knitwear shop in via Gariglietti, on the ground floor of the baroque building known as Casa Riva, where they lived and the ancestors lawyers had their studies. With Lea he also led an intense social life, emerging for elegance and distinction. Oreste Riva was, in fact, also a brilliant man and he met and frequented all the important personalities who passed through Ivrea, in particular in the golden years of the Olivetti expansion, without ever showing off, but makingunderstatement the practice of life, which he passed on to his children. His loss leaves an unbridgeable void not only in his wife and in Alessandro and Paola (married to Alberto Bich and mother of Stefano and Riccardo), but also in his many friends. The funeral will take place tomorrow, Tuesday 10, at 10.30, in the church of San Salvatore. –