Riley remembered as administrator, coach, leader, donor

<p>George Riley</p>

George Riley

California High School football teams have played on Riley Field, whether at the new high school facility or the former location at the elementary-middle schools complex, for decades.

Recently, the school board examined the namesake, George Arthur Riley, and his contributions to the school and community, while considering a request from a group of community members to name the field for the late football coach Geary Labuary.

The board did not take action Dec. 20 on the proposal, presented at the November meeting. However, member Philip Burger said he researched many talented coaches, directors and teachers who have come through the school system. And, although many individuals made great contributions during their time in the system, those impacts generally ended when they left the district, he said.

"It's out of total respect for all of them, not disrespect to any," Burger said for his reason to support leaving Riley's name on the field. "Dr. Riley's contributions have been extensive and beyond what someone today would imagine."

Board member Paul Bloch said the board also received a proposal to put a supporter's name on the performing arts center when it was built. But they ultimately chose not to for the same reason.

"The board set a high bar with Riley's name," Bloch said.

In addition to his decades of school leadership as superintendent and girls' athletics coach, he was instrumental in organizing the community's parks and recreation youth programs, and he and his wife, Brunette, gave a substantial estate gift to the school, which perpetually provides multiple scholarships to graduating seniors.

"I didn't know how much Dr. Riley did before this came up," board member Jay vanDieren said. "He was extremely involved in the school and community. I think future generations ought to know what he has done."

Riley became superintendent of the California school in 1945, serving as the district's only administrator until a high school principal was added in 1954.

During his tenure, the elementary school was built in 1954, the playground black-topped, the first football field developed, the new high school building erected, a four-classroom expansion when the school was reclassified as AA in 1964, and in 1966, remedial reading was added along with auto mechanics and a library.

Riley also saw the creation of the Parent-Teacher Association in 1949, beginning with 65 members; the implementation of half-day kindergarten in the 1949-50 school year and school desegregation. The last seven of the original 70 rural schools in Moniteau County closed in 1955, when those students were bused to California. When reorganization was implemented by the state in 1951, Moniteau County had 23 districts, 70 rural schools and five high schools.

He also served as the girls softball, girls volleyball and girls track coach for many years.

Riley was active in his adopted community, too. He was secretary of the California Senior Housing Board, state director of the AARP, chairman of the Moniteau County University of Missouri Alumni for several years, president of the California Lions Club and Chamber of Commerce, president of the California Country Club, long-serving president of the Moniteau County Welfare Commission, president of the Moniteau County Human Development Corporation, chairman of the Moniteau County Red Cross blood program, long-time secretary of the the California Recreation Association which he helped organize in 1945.

The California football field's namesake was born in 1904 and grew up in Cedar County, studying through his seventh year at a one-teacher schoolhouse before graduating from Stockton High School.

According to a 1971 California Democrat article, Riley's first teaching job was at an eight-month rural school straight out of high school. The next year, he attended Southwest Missouri State College, where he was a letterman on the track team. He returned to the classroom after one year of college education, this time teaching upper grades in a two-teacher rural school.

He eventually graduated in 1927 with a bachelor's degree in social studies. Rogersville School hired him as high school principal, coach and classroom teacher two years before promoting him to superintendent, where he served for 12 years while continuing duties as elementary and high school principal, coach of girls and boys athletics and a classroom teacher.

In 1941, he was appointed the superintendent of the Missouri Training School for Boys in Boonville and married Brunette Cave. Riley briefly was inducted into the U.S. Air Force, then enlisted in the U.S. Army and was discharged in 1944.

Simultaneously, he earned a master's degree in school administration in 1931 from the University of Missouri, where he was president of his graduating class. He attended Teacher College at Columbia University in New York for a summer, before dedicating the next 11 summers to earning a doctor of education degree from the University of Missouri in 1945.

That was when he arrived at California, from where he also taught graduate level administrative courses at Drury College in Springfield for several summers.

He was a leader in the education community, as well as the local school and town.

Riley served as president and vice president of the Missouri Association of School Administrators. He also was president of the Central Missouri Schoolmasters.

He was a member of the board of control of the Missouri State High School Activities Association and was the chairman responsible for bringing music and speech under that organization's supervision.

Riley retired from the school in 1971 and died in 1988.