Thomas N. Riley, 87; Wrote for TV and Magazines

Thomas Nord Riley, 87, who wrote a variety of works from plays to television episodes to magazine columns, died Saturday of cancer at home in San Anselmo, Calif.

Riley, whose pen name was Nord Riley, wrote for magazines such as Collier’s, the Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, Field and Stream, Outdoor Life and Cosmopolitan.

He also wrote episodes for early television shows such as “General Electric Theater” and “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” and a play that toured the United States called “The Armored Dove.”

His last major work was “Nord Riley’s Spain,” a 1989 collection of humorous columns he wrote while living in Spain for nearly 20 years.

Born in Wyndmere, N.D., Riley graduated from the University of Chicago in 1936 and worked for the San Francisco Chronicle before becoming a freelance writer in Mazatlan, Mexico, and in Hollywood.

He served in the Army during World War II, stationed at Ft. MacArthur in Los Angeles and in Cheyenne, Wyo.