John P. Riley

John Riley was born in Grayling, Michigan in 1953. His parents had a dairy farm near Kalkaska. Soon after his birth, the family moved to a farm near Rudyard, in Michigan's upper peninsula. Four years later the family moved to Concord, in southern Michigan. Following high school graduation from Yorktown High in Yorktown, Indiana, Riley worked at many types of jobs while attending college and raising a family with his wife, Susan. He had careers in the computer field and, following graduation from Spring Arbor University, as an elementary school teacher. He lives with Susan on a small farm near Parma, in south-central Michigan. Riley uses vintage Minneapolis-Moline and Cockshutt equipment on the farm. He also has a small collection of classic Studebaker and Packard automobiles. His fair weather daily driver while teaching was a 1964 Studebaker Daytona. John built the house that he and Susan live in, and with the help of his daughter, Melissa, built the pole barn that was used as a calf barn. He dismantled and moved to his farm a 100 year-old barn that is currently used to store hay and equipment.