Steve Riley

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=== ABOUT ME ===

I am a wildlife biologist and I live in Colorado. I am married with 3 adult children and two grand sons. I was born in Marquette, Michigan and have lived in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, South Dakota, Texas, Montana and now Colorado. I attended college for one year at the, now closed, Dana College in Blair Nebraska. I completed my Bachelor's and Master's Degrees at South Dakota State University in Brookings.

Sequentially, I have lived in the following places. I am in the process of adding important events and later to build more of a biographical structure.

Marquette, Michigan. 1960-1964. I was born here and lived at KI Sawyer Air Force base where my father was a senior NCO. My oldest sister, Anita, got married here and had my niece Theresa.

Lincoln, Nebraska. 1964-1965. My father transferred here and helped to close the base at Lincoln. I attended the first half of Kindergarten at Belmont Elementary School in north Lincoln. My parents divorced here and my mother and sisters Debbie and Eva moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa to live with my mother. Once the base closed, my brother Terry and I moved with our father to Forbes Air Force Base in Topeka, Kansas.

Topeka, Kansas. 1966-1967. I attended the second half of Kindergarten and all of first grade. My brother, who was a primary caregiver for me even though he was a teenager, graduated from high school in 1967 and moved away. This prompted my father to accept a tour of duty overseas and to send me to live with my oldest sister, Anita, and her husband in Quincy, Illinois. Part of this decision--and for not sending me to live with my mother and two other sisters--was initially for him to maintain legal custody of me. While in Topeka, I think my Mother and sisters came to visit one time.

Quincy, Illinois. 1967-1968. I attended second grade and lived with my sister, her husband and my niece Theresa and nephew John (who was born while I was with them). It was in some ways a good year in that my sister was nurturing and helpful with my schoolwork. In other ways it was a challenge in that I understood that I was not really a part of the family. Though my father paid child support of some sort, I got the sense that the cost to the family for keeping me was greater than they expected. This led to me being sent to live with my mother and other two sisters who had by this time moved to 1007 West Huron Street, Missouri Valley, Iowa. I became very close with Theresa while in Quincy and in many ways she has always been more of a sister to me than a niece. We are only 2 1/2 years apart in age. I recall that my father came to visit (I think at Christmas) even though he was stationed in Thailand. My mother and sisters Debbie and Eva may have also come to visit, but I don't think so.

Missouri Valley, Iowa. 1968-1970. As soon as I completed second grade, I moved to live with my mother. I don't really remember the trip, but it must have been in late May or early June. I do remember that I learned to swim that Summer. Credit goes to my sister Eva who gave me pre-lessons on an ironing board in the dining room. I was very motivated because I wanted to be able to use the diving boards which required that I could swim across the deep end of the pool unaided. I was a quick study and when I did the test I was invited to be on the swim team. I went on to win a number of races that Summer.

I attended third, forth and most of fifth grades in Missouri Valley. School was hard for me. All of the moving from school to school and curriculum to curriculum was taking its toll. This was exacerbated by a complete lack of parental engagement (other than being in trouble when grades came in). I did take up wrestling and participated for a while. I had some natural talent, which became important later in my life.

We were poor and lived on our Mother's wages as a seamstress and some child support from our father, who was then stationed in Thailand and The Philippines. Even so, we had our own house and yard and we lived close to the pool. We had some neighbors who were caring (at least for me) while others were difficult to navigate; we were children of a single, divorced Mom and it was the 1960s. During this time, I and my sisters were often left on our own. None of us were old enough to be on our own and my sisters were not really childcare providers. I remember many times being in what I now know as "harms way." In 1970 my Father retired from the military and came back to assume custody of me in March. Our Mother didn't want to give me up at that point and told my Father that he would have to take my sister Eva too if he wanted to take me. I think this was a ploy to get him to leave, but he agreed and Eva and I went immediately to live with Dad in Kansas. Another move...another school.

Carbondale, Kansas. 1970-1972. Carbondale was my childhood home. I found myself here and began to develop as a person.

Missouri Valley, Iowa. 1972-1973. I returned briefly to live with my mother in Iowa after some difficulties at home. This turned out to be a mistake and this, my 7th grade year was very challenging.

Carbondale, Kansas. 1973-1978. I returned to Kansas late in my 7th grade year and began to be involved in sports and developing some long-term friendships. Eventually, I became competitive in wrestling, track and I participated some in football and basketball.

Overbrook, Kansas. 1978.

Topeka, Kansas. 1979.

Blair, Nebraska. 1979-1980.

Council Bluffs, Iowa. 1980-1981.

Brookings, South Dakota. 1981-1986 SUMMER JOBS

• St. Charles, South Dakota
• Custer, South Dakota
• Spearfish, South Dakota
• Spearfish, South Dakota (worked in Sundance, Wyoming).

Pierre, South Dakota. 1986-1998.

Waverly, Nebraska. 1998-2017.

Georgetown, Texas. 2017-2019.

Billings, Montana. 2020 (2 months).

Windsor, Colorado. 2020-Present.

I'll add more later.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Samantha Riley for creating Riley-2500 on 7 Dec 13. Click the Changes tab for the details on contributions by Samantha and others.