Leslie Ivan Rieger, age 100, died on October 21, 2017, at the Apostolic Christian Home in Sabetha. He was born on May 11, 1917, on the family farm in Fairview, Kansas. He was the youngest of 9 children to the union of Charles Henry Rieger and Louisa Schaible Rieger. He graduated from Fairview High School with the class of 1935. He attended the University of Kansas and received a degree in Business Administration in 1940. He married Rosalys McCrerey on April 12, 1940. They had one son, Christopher Philip Rieger, of Norman, Oklahoma.  

After graduation from KU he worked for TWA in flight control in the downtown Kansas City Airport. He also worked for Remington Arms in the Engineering Department at Lake City, Missouri. In the fall of 1942 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve and attended Northwestern University in Chicago, as the Navy used various university campuses for training during the World War II. At completion of this training he was promoted to Ensign and transferred to the Supply Corps. He attended Supply Corps School on the Harvard campus at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Duty stations included the Naval Air Training Station at Corpus Christi, Texas, the 8th Naval District Commissioning Detail at New Orleans, Louisiana, and aboard the USS Uvalde, an attack cargo ship operating in the Pacific Theatre. Prior to being assigned to sea duty he was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade.    

He completed active duty in the spring of 1946 and released from the U.S. Navy Reserve in 1952, returning to Hiawatha, Kansas. He was engaged in private business in farming and operation of the Hiawatha Monument Works. In 1958 he returned for post- graduate work in Public Administration at the University of Kansas. He later served the city of Manhattan, Kansas, as Assistant City Manager, Director of Finance and Personnel, and was ultimately appointed City Manager by the Manhattan City Commission. The Rieger Meeting Room at Manhattan’s City Hall was named in honor of his service to the City of Manhattan.    

He was a member of First Presbyterian Church, Manhattan, Kansas, as well as the Hiawatha and Manhattan Lion’s Club where he served as President of both clubs.  He was a lifetime member of the KU Alumni Association, the Kansas State University’s President’s Club, and the VFW Post 1786 in Manhattan.

He was preceded in death by his parents, all of his siblings and his wife. He is survived by his son and daughter- in- law, Christopher and Kimberly Rieger of Norman, Oklahoma; three grandchildren, Sara Rieger Ayres, her husband John and great granddaughters Gabrielle and Allison, of Leawood, Kansas; Jana Rieger of San Diego, California; Michael Rieger of San Francisco, California; as well as several nieces and nephews.

Memorial Services will be held Friday, October 27, 2017 at 10:30 a.m. at Mount Hope Cemetery, Hiawatha, Kansas. Shane Spangler will officiate.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Riley County Humane Society, P.O. Box 1202 Manhattan, Kansas, or the McCrerey-Rieger Scholarship, Kansas State University Foundation: 1800 Kimball Avenue, Suite 200, Manhattan, Kansas 66502. Please indicate Fund Q85026.   

Friends may call at Chapel Oaks Funeral Home, Hiawatha, after 10 a.m. until 7 Thursday evening. www.chapeoaksfuneralhome.com