Robert H. Riley

Robert H. Riley was born in a log cabin on a farm near Ripley, WV, and held jobs as a school teacher, country newspaperman, assistant postmaster and bank teller before he earned his BS and MD from the University of Oklahoma. While there, he worked at the state’s health department where he became an assistant health officer. 

He left Oklahoma and came to Baltimore to take classes in bacteriology and pathology at Johns Hopkins. Dr. William Welch, who was then President of the State Board of Health, persuaded Dr. Riley to work in public health for the State of Maryland. 

His first assignment was to visit every home in rural Dorchester County to teach the residents the rudiments of sanitation. In 1920, he was appointed Chief of the department’s Bureau of Communicable Diseases and then five years later, he became the Assistant Director of the department and a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. 

In 1923, Dr. Riley was appointed as the Director of the Maryland State Department of Health, and held that position until his retirement in 1956. 

He died at age 87 in 1967. Dr. Riley is pictured in front of a map of the state of Maryland.