Howard Riley smiles with his wife Ruth at their home on March 31, 2023. (Enterprise photo — Lauren Yates)

Happy birthday, Howard Riley! Our newspaper sage turns 95 years old on Sunday.

Born on July 20, 1930, in a farmhouse in the hamlet of Gabriels, Howard has lived more lives than most of us, and he continues to write a weekly column — “You Know What …?” — for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. The newsroom staff always looks forward to his visits every week, dropping off the column and artwork, and he’s very particular about how the column is laid out on page 5. We love his jokes and wisdom, and we don’t think he’s lost it yet, even though he still says, “Hello, Liz,” when he walks by former Managing Editor Elizabeth Izzo’s office (she left in September 2024).

“Howard knows brevity is the soul of wit,” Staff Writer Aaron Marbone said. “I always look forward to his salty jokes. I’d like to say more, but he’d yell at me for trying to be an Ernest Hemingway wannabe.”

Howard’s been a Saranac Lake village trustee, mayor and village manager and a councilman and justice for the town of Harrietstown. He was also the editor of the Enterprise and Lake Placid News before working for the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee, writing the official reports.

This is just a tiny slice of what Howard has done for this region, and he continues to give back.

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Adirondack Daily Enterprise

Sept. 15, 2020

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Larry Barney, Jack LaDuke, Howard Riley to enter Lake Placid Hall of Fame

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“The Lake Placid Hall of Fame Committee has named three nominees for induction to the Lake Placid Hall of Fame. …

“Larry Barney, Jack LaDuke and Howard Riley will be inducted this fall into the hall, located in the Conference Center at Lake Placid.

“Howard Riley, of Saranac Lake, is a treasured historian and journalist and has been a longtime promoter of the Olympic Region. He was editor of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and later editor of the Lake Placid News. He was one of the first staff members of the 1980 Olympic Winter Games and author of the 12 official reports from the Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee to the International Olympic Committee and went to Europe with the Lake Placid Olympic Bid Team, as a reporter in January 1973. He was the final general manager of the Lake Placid Club and then, before it closed, managed the club then owned by Key Bank. Riley is one of the best-known storytellers of the region, and his weekly column in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise continues to highlight the community’s history. His civic contributions include being the mayor, trustee and village manager of Saranac Lake; he was town judge for several years and is presently deputy supervisor of the town of Harrietstown.”

Adirondack Daily Enterprise

June 14, 2003

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“In 1951 when I started as a printing apprentice at the Enterprise, I was making $30 a week. The owner/publisher at that time was Fred Kury and he actually interviewed me for the job. Just before I left his office he said, ‘We don’t talk about salaries here.’ I soon found out why. Willie Lewis had been working there for a year before I started and was being paid only $25 a week. There were no paid vacations, no sick days, no health insurance and I was not paid when I had to go to Fort Drum with the National Guard for two weeks training during the summer. We started at 7 a.m. and worked until the paper was out, and sometimes during the winter, there would be web (the six-foot wide web of newsprint would pick up too much static electricity and tear as it went through the press) breaks and we would not finish until 5 or 6 p.m. We came back and worked Thursday night for no pay because Friday’s paper had all the grocery ads which we could not possibly have time to “make up” in the morning. Those were the good old days … maybe that $2.50 a week to learn to be a radio broadcaster was a little too high.”

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Lake Placid News

Feb. 29, 1968

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“A flareup of tempers highlighted the Pabst-Lions toboggan race preparations this week in both Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. Mayor Howard Riley, who holds the crown won in in 1967, claims that Mayor Peacock’s team has been practicing nights and on days when the toboggan run is closed to the public.

“Mayor Peacock denied the report and said the Enterprise photo is fixed or represents somebody else.

“The Saranac Lake team has a severe handicap this year, according to Mayor Riley, who offered news media the information that U.S. Olympic Bobsled coach Jim Lamy had lost 45 pounds in France and was also suffering from some kind of a disease traced to rich food … crepe suzettes and oysters Fountain bleu.”

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(Cheers, Howard. All of us at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and Lake Placid News hope you have a very happy birthday.)