Earl Riley
American mayor (1890-1965)
Robert Earl Riley (February 18, 1890 – August 17, 1965), better known as "Earl Riley", was an Oregon politician and businessman, and mayor of Portland, Oregon, United States, from 1941–1949.
Early life, education, and early career
Riley was born on February 18, 1890, in Portland, Oregon, to Harriett Miranda (Richardson) and Lester N. Riley. His father was a fire bureau captain and his grandfather ran a tannery at Multnomah Stadium (now Providence Park).
Riley graduated from the Portland Academy in 1907, attended Oregon State College 1908–1910, and later the Holmes Business College in Portland. As a second lieutenant he served at the 4th Officers Training School 1918–1919. He was the superintendent of the Columbia Engine Works machine shop 1919–1931.
Civil Service Commission and City Council
Riley's political career began with appointment in 1928 to Portland's civil service commission, on which he served through 1930. Two years later, while he was serving as a partner in a tire company, he was named to fill a vacancy on the city council. He served on the council as commissioner of finance from 1930–1940.
Mayor of Portland
In November 1940, he won his first election to mayor, and was re-elected in 1944.
“Earl Riley” enters the record as american mayor (1890-1965). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Earl, Riley and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5326060. VIAF identifies the subject as 259821269. The Library of Congress control number is no2012098484. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1890, 1965, 1941 and 1949.
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This entry incorporates text from “Earl Riley” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.