John William Riley (1927–1997)

Marine, Pitcher, and Father of Eight

John W. Riley, from his obituary photo in the Springfield Union-News, June 11, 1997.
John W. Riley, from his obituary photo in the Springfield Union-News, June 11, 1997.
This is the story of John William Riley. He was my son-in-law's grandfather, which makes him the great-grandfather of two of my grandchildren. John was born on September 9, 1927, in Cleveland, Ohio. His parents were Harris Henry Riley and Loretta B. Connelly. Loretta died when John was eight, and Harris's second wife, Doris Dannen Guyette, raised him. His family moved around a lot when he was little. By 1930, when he was three, they were living in Akron, Ohio. By 1935 they had moved to Burlington, Vermont, and John spent much of his boyhood there. Later the family settled in Springfield, Massachusetts. Here's a small family mystery for you. His 1951 engagement notice says he graduated from Cathedral High School in Burlington, but his obituary says he graduated from the former Springfield Technical High School. Maybe he started in one and finished at the other. If you ever go digging in old school records, that's a puzzle waiting to be solved. Even before the Marines, John went looking for a life at sea. In June 1945, when he was only seventeen and World War II was still going on in the Pacific, the Springfield Daily Republican reported that "John W. Riley, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harris H. Riley of 24 Marble street" was in basic training with the United States Maritime Service at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York. The Maritime Service trained young men to crew the merchant ships that carried troops, fuel, and supplies across the oceans during the war. These were civilian sailors, not Navy, but their work was dangerous and badly needed. We don't yet know whether he finished training or ever shipped out. One small puzzle: the newspaper items about his wedding in 1951 say he served "four years during World War II" in the Marine Corps, but his own draft card shows his Marine service starting in 1946, after the war ended. A reporter may have mixed up "Maritime" and "Marine," or counted his Maritime training together with his Marine years. Either way, he signed up to serve while he was still a teenager. On September 10, 1946, the day after he turned nineteen, John joined the United States Marine Corps. He served until September 10, 1949, and left as a corporal, a rank that meant he was trusted to lead a small team of Marines. After that he stayed in the Marine Corps Reserve, a group of trained Marines who could be called back if the country needed them. We know these dates from his draft registration card, which he filled out on August 31, 1950, when every young man had to register in case of war. The Korean War had started just two months earlier. After the Marines, he studied at the Radio Television Institute of New York, and later he earned an associate degree in mathematics from the University of Miami. John could really throw a baseball. He played both pitcher and outfielder, and while he was in the Marines he pitched his way to a 12–2 record, which means he won twelve games and lost only two. In 1950 he got his shot at the pros. He spent a season with the St. Albans Giants of the Northern League in Vermont, a minor-league team in the New York Giants "farm system." A farm system is the set of smaller teams a big-league club uses to find and train young players. On June 16, 1950, the St. Albans Daily Messenger listed him among the team's pitching prospects. It called him a twenty-two-year-old right-hander from Springfield who stood six feet two. Not everyone gets their name in the sports pages! Back home in Springfield, John was installing aluminum combination windows for the Pioneer Valley Home Service Co. in Chicopee. He had also fallen in love with Marion Loretta Cummings (1928–2004). Marion was the daughter of Mrs. Edward J. Cummings of Northampton Avenue, a graduate of Cathedral High School, and a medical secretary. Their engagement was announced in the newspaper in January 1951. They were married at 9 a.m. on Saturday, February 3, 1951, at Holy Family Church in Springfield. John and Marion raised a big family, eight children in all: four boys, Patrick, Stephen, Michael, and John, and four girls, Mary, Loretta, Karen, and Colleen. Imagine the noise at their dinner table! In July 1955 the newspaper listed John W. and Marion L. Riley buying property in West Springfield (our family tree also says they lived in Chicopee around then, but we haven't found a record of that yet), and they later lived in the Indian Orchard section of Springfield. To support everyone, John worked for six years delivering for the Springfield Newspapers. Then he spent ten years in the optical division of Kollmorgen Corp. in Northampton, a company known for making precision lenses and periscopes, and he retired in 1987. He was also a member of American Legion Post 207, a club for military veterans. John's father, Harris, died in 1960, and Doris, the woman who raised him, died on September 3, 1970. For the last six years of his life, John and Marion lived in West Springfield. He died at home there on Tuesday, June 10, 1997, at sixty-nine. He left behind Marion, all eight of their children, his sister, Ann McLaughlin of Newport, New Hampshire, and thirteen grandchildren. One of those grandchildren later married into our family. His memorial service was held at Sacred Heart Church in Feeding Hills.
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