When Pat M. Riley Sr. took over as president of the Arkansas chapter of the U.S. Tennis Association in 1956, the organization had no bylaws and no money.
Four years later, under his leadership, the association had sanctioned tournaments across the South, complete bylaws and regulations, scores of members and several thousands of dollars in the bank.
It was because of the way Riley always did things, friends remembered. He'd learn as much as he could about what interested him and then apply his knowledge in intense fashion.
Riley, 92, died in his Little Rock home Tuesday after an illness.
"He loved tennis," Pat Riley Jr. said of his father. "That was his sport."
Riley Sr. was competitive and fair.
In his autobiography, he told the story of a tennis match he was to play against a Fort Smith dentist. The dentist was seeing patients and could not make it to Little Rock in time to play a Friday daytime match. But, the dentist said, he could play at 6 a.m. on Saturday, and Riley agreed.
"Now, waking up early has never been one of my great feats," Riley wrote. "Therefore, I went out at 6 and I was not in my best condition." Still, he managed to win a doubles match.
Riley was inducted into the Arkansas Tennis Hall of Fame in 1982 and was the only Arkansan to umpire tennis matches at both the U.S. Open and Wimbledon tournaments.
He was born in Little Rock in 1923 and graduated from Little Rock Junior College, which is now the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Riley enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a ground corpsman and served in World War II in the Pacific.
When he returned home, he earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville before attending Harvard Business School and graduating in 1949.
A year later, he began working for the Winburn Tile Co. in Little Rock as a regional sales manager. He worked there for 20 years, his son said.
But, the travel wore him out and kept him from his family, his son said. So, Riley quit that job and assembled a group of investors who bought several nursing homes.
In 1985, Riley entered the health club business and opened four clubs that became the Little Rock Athletic Club, the Little Rock Racquet Club, the North Little Rock Athletic Club and the Downtown Athletic Club.
As a youngster, Jay Freeman, 64, of Little Rock said he befriended Riley on the tennis courts.
"I didn't know a time when I didn't know him," Freeman said. "Pat knew how to be a good friend.
"He tolerated me as a kid playing doubles with him."
Freeman said Riley was giving, often helping others who had financial problems. Once, Freeman recalled, he asked Riley if Riley could help a young girl pay the fees at the athletic club so she could practice playing tennis.
"Pat gave her a full membership," Freeman said. "She ended up with a four-year tennis scholarship at Texas A&M.
"He did that for hundreds of people."
In addition to tennis, Riley contributed to swimming in Arkansas. In 1989, he was one of the first people inducted into the Arkansas Swimming Hall of Fame for spearheading the effort to provide championship facilities at the Little Rock Racquet Club for what became the home of the Arkansas Dolphins swim team.
Riley also was a talented singer, often performing solos in the Pulaski Heights Baptist Church choir.
Like everything else he did, he took the role seriously, said Pastor Randy Hyde.
"The last time he sang here was a few months ago," Hyde said. "When he was finished, he headed back to his place in the choir, walked over to me, winked and said, 'Pretty good for 92.'"
Riley often spoke to the congregation before he sang, making Hyde nervous at times.
"Pastors don't always like it when someone else takes over the microphone," Hyde said. "But he was always so gracious and full of praise for everyone."
Riley and his wife, Martha, were married 64 years. They had two daughters and a son.
State Desk on 09/09/2016