RICHARD E. RIIS:

Richard Erling Riis was born on August 3, 1914 in Lemmon, South Dakota, the second of four children born to Erling and Judith Riis. Riis' father, known as Harry, emigrated to the United States from Norway and worked as an auditor for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company and for a bank in Lemmon. Harry Riis died in 1926 when Richard was 11 years old. Richard's mother, Judith Berggren, emigrated with her mother and sister to the United States from Sweden in 1903 and married Harry Riis in Miles City, Montana on May 3, 1911. She worked as a librarian in Lemmon following the death of her husband and died in Pierre, South Dakota on July 29, 1973.

Richard grew up on a small farm in Lemmon and helped support the family by working on the farm and sweeping floors at the local schoolhouse. A year after he graduated from high school Riis moved to Minneapolis to attend the University of Minnesota. He graduated from the University in June of 1939 and began work as an apprentice at the Arlington Machine Company in St. Paul. The following autumn he married Florence Carlson whom he had met during a YMCA mixer in Minneapolis. They made their home on Sherwood Avenue in St. Paul and eventually had three children: John, born 1943; Carl, born 1946; and Ingrid, born 1948. Florence Riis died on November 17, 1989.

In 1942 Riis was drafted into the army and spent three years in the Pacific as a depot supply officer with the 410th Quartermaster Company. After his military service Riis went back to the Arlington Machine Company in St. Paul and completed his apprenticeship, then worked as a machinist at the Twin City Arsenal for two years before taking a position as a journeyman at Auto Engine Works in St. Paul. He began teaching evening machine shop classes at the St. Paul Vocational School in 1951. For eight years he continued working as a machinist by day and an instructor by evening before taking a position as a machine shop instructor at the St. Cloud Area Vocational Technical School in 1959.

Always interested in outdoor sports and the natural environment, Riis began teaching classes on conservation through the adult evening program of the St. Cloud vocational school in 1965. He was a member of the St. Cloud Community Wildlife Club and began serving as their local education chairman in 1967. For two years, 1968-1970, Riis chaired the Education Committee of the Minnesota Conservation Federation. During this time he produced a series of 26 programs that were distributed to radio stations throughout the state with the Federation's support. From 1970-1973 Riis also served on an environmental education task force for the Minnesota Education Association and served as the environmental education coordinator for the St. Cloud school district.

At the same time that he was involved in promoting environmental education, Riis also started writing feature stories for the outdoors section of the Thursday edition of the St. Cloud Daily Times that was edited by Ed Gerchy. Riis had already submitted articles to the monthly newsletter of the Minnesota Conservation Federation but under Gerchy's direction Riis worked up a regular column for the Thursday section called "Environmental Topics." On March 14 of 1974 Gerchy published the first issue of a weekly newspaper solely dedicated to outdoor recreation and Riis was on staff as a regular columnist and feature writer. Later that same year Riis suffered a heart attack that led to his decision to retire from teaching in 1976 and to expand his career as an outdoor writer. Over the next several years Riis contributed articles to a variety of publications and wrote a number of various columns and features for Gerchy's Outdoor Outlines, the Superior Evening Telegram, and the Burnett County Sentinel. Riis retired from writing at the end of 1983 at the age of 70.

Riis died September 17, 2004 in Salisbury, North Carolina.

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The majority of the collection pertains to Riis' career as an outdoor writer, 1976-1983. These files include correspondence with editors, carbon copy typescripts and clippings of published columns, story and subject files, and two boxes of photographs. Riis covered a wide range of topics and provided his own pictures in regular columns and feature stories that concentrated on game, fishery, forestry, and water management; outdoor recreation such as fishing, hunting, camping, canoeing, hiking, snowmobiling, skiing, and bicycling; local wildlife and sportsman clubs; local businesses; local schools; and local people.

Other materials pertain to adult classes on natural resource conservation that Riis taught at the St. Cloud Area Vocational Technical School and to his leading role as an advocate for environmental education within the Minnesota Conservation Federation, the Minnesota Education Association, and the St. Cloud school district during the late 1960s and early 1970s. This portion includes recordings of radio programs that Riis created.

Personal and family papers reflect Riis' depression-era Lemmon, South Dakota boyhood, his Second World War army service in the Pacific, and his activities as a vocational teacher in St. Cloud. Additional materials include a postcard album kept by his mother and audio letters documenting his son's service as a tactical air lift pilot during the Vietnam War.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Richard E. Riis Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Location of Master Files:

Digital masters of the World War II and Vietnam War audio letters are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

The original audiocassettes containing the Vietnam War audio letters were disposed after the recordings were digitally reformatted into WAV and MP3 audio files, August 2016.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 11,733; 11,791; 11,945; 12,874; 13,139; 13,298; 15,451

Processing Information:

Processed by: Bonnie Beatson Palmquist, February 1975, December 1982, January 1985; Monica Manny Ralston, November 2001.

PALS ID number: 990017373250104294

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World War II audio letters, 1945-1946. 1 folder containing 3 audio discs:

Richard E. Riis to son and wife, December 13, 1945. 1 master audio disc: cardboard; 7 in.; 1 submaster audio disc: coated aluminum; 7 in.; and 4 audio files: MP3 (8.72 MB)

An audio recording made by Riis through facilities provided by the USO containing Christmas greetings sent to his wife and son John.

Digital image

To son, master, digital audio

To wife, master, digital audio

To son, submaster, digital audio

To wife, submaster, digital audio

John Riis to Richard Riis, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, January 19, 1946. 1 audio disc; 7 in. and 1 audio file: MP3 (3.94 MB).

Contains a return greeting sent to Riis wherein his young son John recites Clement Clarke Moore's poem.

Digital audio

Vietnam War letters, 1970-1971. 1 folder and 10 audio files: MP3 (275 MB).

One handwritten letter and ten audio letters originally recorded on eight audiocassettes and sent between the Richard E. Riis family and their son Lieutenant Carl H. Riis who served as a tactical air lift pilot in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at both Camrahn Bay and Clark Air Base.

The majority of the audiocassettes contained only one audio letter on one side of the cassette; two of the cassettes contained letters on each side. These audiocassettes were disposed after the recordings were digitally reformatted into WAV and MP3 audio files.

From Carl, Monday, September 21, 1970

From Carl, Wednesday, October 14, 1970

To Carl, Saturday, October 24, 1970

From Carl, Saturday, October 31, 1970

From Carl, Saturday, November 21, 1970

From Carl, December 17, 1970

From Carl, April 18, 1971

From Carl, May 25, 1971

To Carl, May 31, 1971

From Carl, June 22, 1971

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Additional information regarding Riis' role as chairman of the Education Committee for the Minnesota Conservation Federation may be found in the records of the Federation available in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscripts collections.

Complete issues of the St. Cloud Daily Times and Outdoor Outlines, in which columns and feature stories by Riis were regularly published, are available on microfilm in the Minnesota Historical Society newspaper collection.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Environmental education -- Minnesota.

Conservation of natural resources.

Journalism, Outdoor -- Minnesota.

Journalism, Outdoor -- Wisconsin.

Newspapers -- Sections, columns, etc.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975.

World War, 1939-1945.

Places:

Saint Croix River Valley (Wis. and Minn.).

Persons:

Riis family.

Berggren family.

Riis, Carl H.

Organizations:

Outdoor Writers Association of America.

Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers.

Minnesota Conservation Federation.

National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame (Hayward, Wis.).

Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church (Saint Paul, Minn.).

St. Cloud Area Vocational Technical School (Saint Cloud, Minn.).

Types of Materials:

Photographs.

Audiotapes.

Phonograph records.

Newspaper columns.

Feature stories.

Radio programs.

Sound recordings.

Occupations:

Air pilots, Military -- Vietnam -- Correspondence.

Outdoor writers -- Minnesota.

Journalists -- Minnesota.

Vocational teachers -- Minnesota -- Saint Cloud.

Titles:

Outdoor outlines.

Minnesota out-of-doors (radio program).

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