John Eckel Riley

Background

John Riley was born to George Duncan Riley and Mary Jane Oliver Riley on January 23, 1909 in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Education

Boston University.

Career

He received his undergraduate degree from the Eastern Nazarene College in 1930 and his graduate education at Boston University in 1931. He also received an honorary doctor of divinity from alma mater Eastern Nazarene in 1950. While president of NNC from 1952 to 1973, Riley led an ambitious academic program to expand and professionalize the Christian liberal arts college.

His Campus Plateau 1970 program added a number of new doctorates to the faculty, helped fund several new buildings, and clearly strengthened the college"s reputation in the Pacific Northwest.

He retired as president in 1973 and became a missionary in Africa, Australia, Israel, and Switzerland for five years. He published From Sagebrush to Ivy: The Story of NNC 1913-1988 in 1988 and died in 2001 at the age of 92.

The John East. Riley Library at Northwest Nazarene University is named in his honor.

Works

More photos

• book

  • This Holy Estate - Guidance in Christian Homemaking

    (This is a 192 page softback. Contents include: The Home i...)

  • This Holy Estate (Guidance in Christian Homemaking)
  • The wind runs free: Mission to North America (Missionary resource book)
  • The Golden Stairs

Connections

Father:

George Duncan Riley

Mother:

Mary Jane (Oliver) Riley

Spouse:

Dorcas Mine Tarr

child:

Lynn Roberta Riley

child:

Gail Katherine Riley

child:

Jane Noel Riley