Enrique Rivera

Enrique Rivera, 47, passed away on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, in hospice care at home, in Meridian, Idaho, after undergoing treatment for Multiple Myeloma for the past 16 months. He fought hard, with help from the amazing doctors and nurses at UAMS Myeloma Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, and St. Luke’s in Boise, but the cancer was too aggressive to overcome.

Born on April 10, 1978, to Enrique and Eva (Nunez) Rivera, Enrique grew up in Huntington Park, California, and attended high school at St. John Bosco High School, a private Catholic school in Bellflower. A studious, hard worker, who stuck to his faith, and family-oriented from the start, he was extremely loving to his parents, younger sister Cindy, and little brother Ramon. His happy place was at his grandmother’s house on Beach Street in South Los Angeles, where the family gathered on Friday nights and holidays while he grew up.

A reflection of his parents’ ideals, morals, and work ethic, making his parents proud was everything to Enrique—enjoying any opportunity to show off who raised him. He followed in their footsteps, setting that same example for his own three children to set the bar even higher.

Enrique met his wife of 26 years, Rocio (Valenzuela) Rivera, while they were both working at Wendy’s when she (seven months older) was attending college and he was in high school. During his Senior year in high school, he went with one of his friends to Home Savings of America, where Rocio was a bank teller, even though he didn’t have an account there, just to see her. Three years later, they were married on September 18, 1999.

Always a leader and a teacher to his wife and kids, Enrique was funny, sweet, and strict— with the best intentions. A big supporter of his children’s interests, he liked whatever was trendy, sometimes becoming a bigger fan than they were, and loved learning all the new dance crazes. A huge Dodgers, Raiders and Lakers fan, in his downtime, you might find Enrique (the house princess) on the couch eating a bowl of cereal, while watching Toy Story or Twilight (he was Team Edward because he sparkles), goofing around, and telling one of his kids a new dad joke.

In his professional life, Enrique started his career as a teller at Bank of America in 1996 and quickly began opening new accounts with huge success. At night, he worked at a collection agency, and on weekends, in sales at Radio Shack, where he soon worked full-time managing what became two of the top-performing stores in LA County. His sales were so good, he was promoted to District Manager while just in his early twenties.

In 2004, Enrique and Rocio decided to move from Los Angeles to Idaho Falls. Initially working at Radio Shack in Idaho Falls, Enrique soon returned to banking at ICCU, where he worked on new accounts and then managed a new branch. Leaving banking for a year, when State Farm and then Liberty Mutual recruited him, which brought him to Boise, he decided insurance wasn’t for him and went back into banking as a Branch Manager.

Never afraid to try something new, when Bank of Idaho recruited him as a commercial lender, he jumped at the chance and found he loved building relationships with people and helping small businesses achieve their dreams. He enjoyed sitting with people, questioning them, and helping them come up with financial solutions, which he continued to do in his last professional role as VP Commercial Lender at Northwest Bank.

His family was always proud of his commitment to helping others, even though that meant they had to share him with countless others. He wasn’t just theirs. He was forever on his phone, staying connected to his community, passionate about helping his family, friends, colleagues, and customers.

Well-connected and always happy to introduce people and opportunities through networking, Enrique spent almost 10 years positively impacting the community as board president for the Community Council of Idaho. He (and his family) went to Las Vegas each July for the nonprofit’s yearly conference, where he’d attend the finance or accounting sessions during the days and play poker by night.

Fiercely competitive, he was an avid poker player—who had a weekly poker night with friends and participated in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas (placing 138 out of 3,151 players)—able to sit at a table with a professional and keep his poker face. That competitive spirit existed at home as well, where family game nights of Enrique’s favorite card game Arabian Prince often resulted in him either being a sore loser, or a sore winner (sometimes excessively celebrating his victory).

Always with a winner’s mentality, he usually won at poker, or at least broke even, and counted one of his proudest moments as reaching Platinum status at Caesar’s Palace. Once he achieved it, he upped his adage of “never stay complacent” to wanting everything in life to be “a platinum experience.” When asked about his fondest memories, Enrique named those summer road trips to Las Vegas with the family, which became a tradition, stopping along the way in Los Angeles to visit relatives and see the old stomping grounds before the conference.

Upon moving to Meridian, Enrique was introduced to the Idaho Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, where he sat on the board, eventually becoming president and then CEO. Next, he became an ambassador for Nampa Chamber of Commerce, transitioning to the board as treasurer and then becoming board president in June 2024.

Enrique was Idaho Hispanic Foundation board president, involved with the Hispanic Cultural Center of Idaho, the former Commissioner of planning and zoning for the City of Meridian, participated in community interviews for new hires at the Meridian Police Department, and volunteered to sit on judging panels for grad student thesis presentations at BSU and various local pageants in the Hispanic community.

Community members loved Enrique. They respected him professionally and personally and sought him out for advice. A mature, natural born leader, neighbors jokingly called him Mayor Enrique. While he seriously considered the idea of entering politics at one time, he decided against it because he didn’t want to subject the family to life in the public eye.

Through his example of many years of impactful mentorship and selfless service, Enrique taught his children to hold themselves to a higher standard and be involved in their community such as, ringing the Salvation Army bell when they were young and then guiding them to find their own ways to volunteer and give back when they were older.

Enrique often went to community events where his son Daniel, who works in banking as a Community Development Officer, was often in attendance. His daughter Natalie attends and works for BSU, where she is involved in student government and has a double major and minor. The youngest Rivera, Arianna is entering her sophomore year in high school, where she is involved in student council as the incoming vice president of the class.

Always vocally proud of his children’s accomplishments, immediately after the celebration, Enrique would encourage them to get excited about the next one. He was always moving forward, wheels turning, planning what’s next. And he was always full of surprises. No one could ever guess what he would do next.

A business idea he eventually settled on (after considering opening a coffee shop, a gas station, or a grilled cheese truck) was to start a podcast called HABLA, where successful professionals would speak about how they did it, what they learned, and who they asked for help.

Frustrated with the prevalent reluctance within the Hispanic community to ask for help, he wanted HABLA to dispel the misconception for the amazingly talented people who felt they were stuck where they were at, motivate them, and help them understand that everyone can break through the imagined ceiling limit, push boundaries, keep moving up, and do better.

Just before his diagnosis, Enrique had made a list of the local professionals – restaurateurs, accountants, lawyers – lined up to interview, created a logo and professional intro for the podcast, was on the cusp of signing a lease for a space, and was planning all the equipment and furniture with his son Daniel, who was to be the audio engineer.

Enrique is survived by his wife, Rocio Rivera (Meridian, ID); son, Daniel Rivera (Boise, ID); daughters, Natalie R. Rivera (Boise, ID) and Arianna E. Rivera (Meridian, ID); golden doodle, Kobe Rivera (Meridian, ID); sister, Cynthia De La Pena (Royce City, TX); brother, Ramon Rivera (Fate, TX); father, Enrique Rivera (Fate, TX); and mother, Eva Rivera (Fate, TX).

(Please note: Enrique wanted his services to be a platinum affair, celebrated like a gala, with cocktail formal attire, complete with mariachi music.) Attire, suggested not mandatory

Recitation of the rosary will be held at 6:00 pm, Wednesday, August 13, 2025 at Bowman Funeral Parlor, 10254 W. Carlton Bay Dr., Garden City, Idaho, with visitation beginning at 5:00 pm.

A funeral mass will be held at 11:00 am, Thursday, August 14, 2025 at the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist, 807 N. 8th St., Boise, Idaho.

A committal service will follow at 12:30 pm at Dry Creek Cemetery, 9600 Hill Rd., Boise, Idaho.

To attend the service virtually please visit https://www.youtube.com/@boisecathedral  or https://www.facebook.com/boisecathedral?mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=31NTk52guT5SlTTK&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2F1EXi3iLg9d%2F%3Fmibextid%3DwwXIfr#

Services are under the direction of Bowman Funeral Parlor.