Mount Pleasant Magazine July/August 2017

feature

Photo by Jess Wood Photography.

BY BRIAN SHERMAN

Great

Team

Joe Riley and

Mount Pleasant’s

Mayors

oseph Patrick Riley Jr., lifelong Dodger fan,

longtime mayor of Charleston and unabashed

ambassador for the resplendent

stretch of Coastal

Carolina he has always called home, held up his

hand, the space between his thumb and forefinger

barely visible, to describe the size of the phone book that

once listed every resident and business in Mount Pleasant,

Sullivan’s Island and Isle of Palms.

When Riley moved into the mayor’s office in

Charleston in December 1975, Gerald R. Ford was the

president of the United States, the cost of a postage

stamp was about to rise from 10 to 13 cents and Mount

Pleasant’s population, according to the 1970 Census, was

only 6,879. But even back then, Riley, who remained in

office for four decades, was confident that Charleston’s

neighbor across the Cooper River would someday be

among South Carolina’s most vibrant municipalities.

“I knew Mount Pleasant was a great place to live

and that it was positioned strategically to benefit from

the growth that was occurring,” said Riley. “When the

Joe Riley worked

with seven

different Mount

Pleasant mayors

during his 40

years as mayor of

Charleston.

Photo by Jess Wood Photography.

Riley is a proud

graduate of The Citadel.