Reilly Ridgell

Reilly Ridgell was born in Santa Monica, California in 1947. In 1950 his father went back into the military to finish up a service career. They moved around from California to Maine to Guam to Delaware to Illinois with many stops in Denver where relatives lived. By high school time Ridgell was living in Pacific Palisades and going to Palisades High. He graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Political Science in 1969 and received a Master's in the same field in 1970 from UC Santa Barbara. After a year of unsuccessful job hunting he joined the Peace Corps, serving as a teacher in the Western Islands (Namonpattiw) of what was then called Truk (now properly called Chuuk) in Micronesia. After two years of Peace Corps and two years of a teaching contract, he moved to Guam. There he taught in a private high school and worked as a progressive rock disc jockey. In 1980 he was hired as an assistant professor at Guam Community College. In 1983 the College published his text book, Pacific Nations and Territories. Future editions, and an elementary level version called Pacific Neighbors, were published by Bess Press in Honolulu and the book is still in print. In 1991 the University of Guam published his anthology of Peace Corps stories, Bending to the Trade Winds. His first novel, Green Pearl Odyssey, published by Blue Ocean Press, was released in 2010. His second novel, The Isla Vista Crucible, about the year at UC Santa Barbara when the nearby Bank of America was burned down by protesters, is due to be published by Savant Books in early 2012. He is currently a dean at Guam Community College.