Melrose High School

William Joseph Riley “Bill Rainbow Willie”

William Joseph Riley (“Bill Rainbow Willie”) was one of 247 graduates in the class of 1936 at Melrose High School, Melrose, Massachusetts. Printed details: headed for Tufts; a write-up. Portrait and entry from the 1936 yearbook, page 72.

Class of 1936

247 in the class of 1936 · 72 more named Riley

Full name: William Joseph Riley
Known as: Bill Rainbow Willie
School: Melrose High School
Graduated: Class of 1936
Headed for: Tufts

Also searched as: Bill Riley; William Riley; William J. Riley; Billy Riley.

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Same surname 64
Classmates 246
Same schools 3

In context

In the alphabetical roll of 247 names from the Melrose High School class of 1936, William stands 187th. On the scan, the entry sits on page 72, around the middle of the stretch from page 19 to page 158 where this site found the book's portraits. Among the 104 people in the class who printed a plan, 39 (38%) named a college or university, as William did (“Tufts”). The name William appears 5 times among the 247 names on this site from the class. The class of 1936 has 247 names here, where the neighbouring class has 277 for 1938.

On the same scan page	James C. Richdale Jr, Arthur S. Robinson, Pauline Robinson
Same kind of plan	college or university: 39 of 104 classmates with a plan (38%)
Same first name	William: 4 other people in the class

What William did at school

Orchestra 1, 3
Football 1
Band 2, 3

What the yearbook said

Bill is that rugged specimen of intellectual genius and generally bright student all rolled in one. He is not only all these, but also an all-round good fellow. He has that slight weakness for the fair sex as many another of our more prominent citizens have. Bill intends to pursue a (difficult chemical engineering course at Tufts and will no doubt succeed at it. Well, here’s wishing you a lot of luck, Bill!

The class of 1936

All 247 in this class →

Others named Riley

Same surname in Massachusetts. They may be relatives; the books do not say.

All 72 people named Riley →

Also headed for Tufts

Look for William Joseph Riley in other records

FamilySearch census, birth, marriage and death records (free account)
Internet Archive other yearbooks, city directories and town reports that mention the name
Chronicling America digitized newspapers at the Library of Congress

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Source

Melrose High School yearbook, 1936, page 72. View the original scan at the Internet Archive (item log1936melr).

Published 1936. Scan courtesy of Digital Commonwealth libraries via the Internet Archive.

How this page was made: the name, portrait and printed details were read from the scan by software and checked against the page; a few in every hundred details are still wrong. How it works · Report an error · Standards