In the 1960s, many young men were yanked from their homes and thrown into the front lines of duty, drastically altering their lives forever.
While many undergo tragedy in the military, one man experienced an extraordinary positive life change — one that he cherishes to this day.
For Sam Riley, who is now a communication professor at Virginia Tech, combat was not in his job description.
“My two years of service came just before our involvement in Vietnam, so I was just lucky I missed all of the shooting,” he said.
Riley served as a publications officer with an intelligence group in a small town near Frankfurt, Germany, where he illustrated and edited intelligence reports for most of northern Europe.
”What I did was not James Bond-like in the least, but we had people who did the spook stuff; they had little hidden cameras and stuff just like in the movies,” Riley said.
During his time in Germany, Riley stayed in a government-owned mansion, which he came across himself. The building was previously used as an intelligence safe house, but Riley convinced his commanding officers to let him and his fellow soldiers use it as a “bachelor pad.”
“At night, we would go into the town and eat dinner and carouse with the Germans our age there,” he said. “They were a delightful group. It was an incredibly good two years. I can still hardly believe it.”
Riley’s safety serving his country seems like a remarkable stroke of luck, which is no surprise, as good fortune has always been part of his life.
At Davidson College, located near Charlotte, N.C., Riley received his undergraduate education and resolved to study marketing, in light of the few academic options offered.
Since the U.S. military draft was active at the time, Riley enrolled as a cadet in the ROTC, allowing him to enter his service as a lieutenant.
After he earned his degree at Davidson, Riley attended the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill to obtain his MBA.
Riley presumed he would make a living as a businessman; however, his life took an unexpected turn.
“I didn’t set out to be a professor at all. If anyone would have told me when I was younger that I would become a professor, I would have laughed and laughed and probably would have thrown something at them,” Riley said.
After he completed his required two years of military service, Riley had the lofty vision of having his own home with elegant Danish furniture, inspired by the once-lived German mansion.
Surprisingly, this idea led him to teaching.
He took a job at the University of Maryland teaching a basic business administration course with one goal — to use his earnings to purchase his much-desired household fittings.
“(It was) not exactly the best reason to get a teaching job,” Riley said.
But the job seemed to please the newfound teacher — Riley decided he wanted to make a living from teaching. Setting out to make this goal a reality, he returned to UNC to obtain his doctorate degree.
Although he initially sought his doctorate in business, based on his previous academic pursuits, an acquaintance convinced him otherwise.
“I ran into this guy who was a brand new, young professor, and he got to telling me what they were doing in the journalism school with their brand new doctoral program,” Riley said. “It sounded so much more doggone interesting than what I would have been doing that I switched.”
Plotting a new path, Riley began his teaching career in communication in 1970 at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Within a few years, he was offered an opportunity to start his own journalism program at Georgia Southern University, which ended up being a contender to that of its prestigious state-rival the University of Georgia.
“I always have joked that it would be fun to have my own university, but I thought that would never happen,” he said. “So this was the closest thing I would get — to set up (a program) how I would like it.”
It wasn’t until 1981 when Riley found his way to Blacksburg, Va., at which time he was asked to be the head of the communication department at Tech, a position he no longer holds.
He is now most known for teaching editorial writing and magazine writing. Colin Kerr, a senior communication major, previously took his editorial writing course and enjoyed it so much that he enrolled in the latter.
“What sets him apart from other professors is that he teaches his class as though he is only speaking to one person; he is incredibly personal and personable,” Kerr said.
Adding flavor to his courses, Riley tells humorous anecdotes about his experience serving in the military overseas — Kerr even called him a “storytelling teacher.”
“(His stories) bring you closer to wanting to understand who he is, and I enjoyed that so much,” Kerr said. “I had never sat in on a class like his in all of my four years at Tech.”
Riley’s tales are also useful for students who need to grasp important writing concepts.
“(His teaching) helps when you think back on your own life and the interesting stories you could write about that you might not normally tell, but could interest anyone,” Kerr said.
In addition to teaching, Riley has used his gift as a narrator to write professionally, both as a journalist and a scholar. He also delved — apprehensively — into the book publishing industry.
He approached a colleague, who had published many works, for advice about finding a book publisher. He just happened to be on the phone with his own publisher at the time and let Riley talk to him.
“And that’s all it took,” Riley said.
Since then, Riley has authored more than 15 books, many of which have detailed his keen interest in the history of magazine writing.
That random phone conversation was another instance of serendipity, guiding him in yet a different direction.