Robert W. Riley

Robert Riley was born April 1, 1913 to Lenora (Bullard) and George Riley in Pittsburgh, Texas. He was the youngest of five children. Sadly his father and one brother passed away when he was just 2 years old. His mother remarried when he was five and had four more children. Riley started going to church when he was just 9 years old, when he would saddle up his horse and go by himself. There were two churches in the little town he grew up in, so every Sunday he would go to both church services. He says that his love for the Lord is what helped him throughout his life.

He has had a variety of jobs throughout his life. He ran a farm for his uncle while going to high school then drove a logging truck for another uncle for 3-4 years. He also drove a produce truck cross-country for several years and laid pipelines from Portland, Maine, up into Canada and from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia.

A few weeks after Pearl Harbor, Uncle Sam called him to join the military. He was in the 450th school squadron and studied to be an aircraft instrument specialist, where he pre-tripped the planes before take-off. He spent four years in the service.

After the war, he went back to Texas and bought the homestead to farm but soon found out he needed a job to go with it. He went to work for the government as a inspector of parts. When the opportunity came to move to Colorado, he jumped at the chance. In Colorado, he was a parts purchaser, where he went to plants to inspect parts before buying. The government wanted to transfer him to Chicago, so he quit that job and went to work in a machine shop inspecting parts.

After that, he went to work for Whittaker in Denver as a quality control inspector for the whole plant. Nothing went in or out of the plant without his approval. The plant made silver zinc batteries to power all three stages of minute-men missiles. The missiles were designed so that if someone fired another missile at one of them, they would send out a decoy missile for it to follow.

He enjoyed hunting, fishing, and camping. His favorite thing he was proud of was running field dogs in competition, where his dog beat out more than 40 other dogs. A few years ago, Riley's son told him that he thought it was time for him to move closer to him so he could help him more. That is when he moved to Jackson Oaks from Colorado. You could find him most days either walking the halls, riding the NuStep machine or up in the Therapy Room using some of the equipment. He also exercised in his room every morning before breakfast. He is an inspiration to all of us. His is survived by his step-son, Bob & Janice Deel, also 10 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren, and 8 great great grandchildren.

Visitation Tuesday, January 27, 2015, 4pm to 7pm at Olinger Highland Mortuary in Thornton, Colorado. Funeral Services will be held on Wednesday, January 28, 2015 at 9:00am in the Chapel located at Olinger Highland Mortuary. He will be laid to rest up at Olinger Mt. Lindo Cemetery in Morrison, Colorado.